House clears bill to fine officers for delay in services

The AAP’s flagship bill, the Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time-Bound Delivery of Services) Amendment Bill, which will automatically deduct salaries of public officials in cases of delay in delivering government services, was passed in the Delhi Assembly unopposed on Thursday.

The bill seeks to ensure that every department will issue a comprehensive citizens’ charter, within 30 days of notification. It will ensure the government provides services under the citizens’ charter in a time-bound manner and will compensate people automatically in case of delay in services beyond the prescribed period till the service is provided.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal described the bill as a “huge victory” in the fight against corruption. “Congrats Delhi. Delhi Assembly passes the Delhi (Right of Citizens to Time-Bound Delivery of Services) Amendment Bill, 2015 unanimously. A huge victory in our fight against corruption. It is beginning of end of cutting edge corruption that aam admi faces daily in his life,” he said in a series of tweets.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia also highlighted the salient features of the bill. “When people vote for a government, they expect that the government will make their life easier. However, people have to run from pillar to post for any kind of certificate. In Annaji’s 2011 movement, he had mentioned thousands of certificates and instances wherein the government officials delay the matter. In our amended version of the bill, we have fixed officers in every department to overlook the delivery of services.”

The BJP MLAs did not oppose the bill stating that the introduction of the bill is not illegal. “This is the first bill in the session that we do not oppose as it has been introduced well within the legal framework of the GNCTD Act and the Constitution. However, we selectively oppose the part of the bill which does not state any fixed amount of compensation in case any violation,” said Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta.

The salient features of the bill include that within 30 days of notification, every department will issue a comprehensive citizens’ charter. The head of each department will be responsible for time-bound delivery of service.

The bill will also include free-of-cost dissemination and digitisation of all forms and information. The citizens’ charter focuses on complete e-governance to deliver their respective citizens’ related services in prescribed time period through electronic means. And payments, in case of delay, will be made every 30 days. “Payment schedule to be taken from competent authority. The clause that restricted maximum compensation to '200 per application has been removed.”

Presently, there are a total of 371 services, covering almost all departments, under the ambit of the legislation that was enacted during the tenure of previous CM Sheila Dikshit.

The bill envisages entrusting a competent officer, a person not below the rank of deputy secretary, with the purpose of effecting payment of compensation to an individual and recovery of the compensation from the officer or person responsible.