The cabinet today gave its in principle approval to a Bill aimed at providing time-bound delivery of services like passports, pensions and birth and death certificates, among others, to the citizens. The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011, was approved by Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.Our correspondent reports, the Bill envisages penalty of upto 50,000 rupees against a government official failing to provide the services.
It lays down an obligation upon every public authority to publish a citizen's charter, stating therein the time within which specified goods shall be supplied and services be rendered and provides for a grievance redressal mechanism for non-compliance of its provisions.
The proposed legislation, spearheaded by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, also mandates a public authority to establish a call centre, customer care centre, help desk and people's support system to ensure time- bound delivery of services.
It also seeks establishment of public grievance redressal commission at the Centre and every state.
All services provided by both the Centre and the state governments will be extended to citizens in a time-bound manner under the bill.