New bill to fine officials for delay in services: Govt

The AAP government on Monday introduced an amendment in an effort to provide time-bound services to the public under the citizens’ charter.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who introduced the bill — Delhi (Right of Citizen to time Bound Delivery of Services) Amendment Bill 2015 in the Delhi Assembly — in the House, termed it as an “aam aadmi bill” in the real sense and said that it will not only provide timely delivery of the services to the citizens, but will also compensate them for the delay caused in the services beyond the prescribed period till the particular service is provided.

He said that the previous dispensation too had passed the Right To Time-Bound Delivery Of Services Act in 2011, but this did not yield proper results to the citizens. “Even though more than 370 services were included, no compensation was paid to the citizens for the past four years. This is because the person had to apply to demand compensation and also apply to higher officers in case he/she does not get the services on time for demanding action against junior officers. Also, the compensation received was too meagre and was full of hassles,” he said.

The most important factor in the amendment is that within 30 days of the issuance of the notification, every department and its head will announce citizen charter. “The government has made the process to claim compensation hassle-free and has increased the penalties, which will now be levied on case to case basis. To streamline the process, every department will have a competent officer who will ensure the calculation of compensation to the citizen, in case the service is not delivered by it on time,” he said.

Asserting that the bill’s motive is to make the life of a common man easy, Mr Sisodia said that it will the job of the competent officers in every department to fix the responsibility in the event of non-delivery of services on time and levy penalty. If the competent officer is unable to fix the responsibility for the delay in three months, he/she will bear the compensation amount to be given to the citizen,” he said.

The government will reward well-performing officers and employees. “This step will enhance the morale of well-performing officers. The amendments will also act as a catalyst to transition from the paper-based system to the electronic mode in providing services to the public.”

The bill will be discussed in the House on Tuesday.