The Right to Guarantee of Service Act (RTGS Act), implemented in the State in 2011, seems to have utterly failed to achieve its objectives as the implementation of the provisions of the law has been pathetically slow.
The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) recently tabled in the Assembly has specifically mentioned that the implementation of RTGS Act in the State was slow and institutional arrangements for implementation of the Act were inadequate. The Government did not provide staff and fund for rendering the services under the Act.
The report also stated that the works of the Department of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha (the Nodal department), which has to oversee implementation of RTGS Act in the State, service delivery of 14 out of 54 services pertaining to the labour, Employment and Training, Food and Civil Supplies and Home Departments for the period 2012-13 to 2014-15 were assessed. And, the assessors found discrepancies in the implementation of the Act with significant lethargy on the part of Government to make it effective and people friendly.
It was found that there were delays of up to 552 days in delivery of services of police verification for appointment, passport and character certificate under the Home Department.
"Out of 1,814 applications waiting for police verification report for various appointments 89 per cent were delayed by two to 552 days, while two per cent of them were disposed of in the stipulated time frame. It further added that out of 53,687 cases taken up for test check, 83 per cent of them were not verified within stipulated timeframe," stated the report.
However, the Regional Passport Office denied any such delay. "Till Friday only 1,500 applications were pending for verification beyond 21 days till I left the office," said Regional Passport Officer Sanathan.
According to the report, reason behind the delay was attributed to the lack of awareness and sensitisation among the citizens of the state. Police verification for character certificate test checked for six districts, three of them were not found to be maintaining the diary in this regard.
The report said that Deputy SPs of Ranchi, Pakur and Palamu accepted that delays in delivery of services were due to delay in police verification by the concerned police station, shortage of manpower and engagement of personnel in maintaining law and order.
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Further, under the food and civil supplies department pertaining to the services for issuing licences for ration shops and revocation of ration shop licenses there were delay of up to 1,008 days.
Surprisingly, in case of applications received related to labour, Employment And Training Departments for the six services (Building Constructions Workers Act, certificate under Contract labour Act, certificate under Motor Transport Employment Act, certificate under Regulation of Bidi and Cigar Workers Act, registration Certificate for Shops And Establishment Act and licences for Industrial Establishment Under Dal Mill/Atta Chakki Act) on the other hand, it was revealed that 97 per cent of the cases were serviced in time and only three per cent of the cases were delayed ranging between 3 and 234 days.
The Government of Jharkhand enacted Right to Guarantee of Services Act 2011 to provide rights based delivery of public services to the citizens of the state within a stipulated timeframe. Rules prescribe maintenance of requisite records for monitoring services delivered, for training and capacity building of service providers, for designation of appellate authorities and realization of penalty from the erring officials. Rules prescribe time bound delivery of 54 services across 11 departments - Revenue and land Reforms, Social Welfare, Energy Department, Medical, Transport Department, Agriculture, Mining, UDD, Home, Food and Civil Supplies and labour and Employment.
It was also observed by the Accountant General's Office that 45,695 cases of delayed provisions of services in the test checked offices defeated the objective of the Act to provide rights based public services to the citizens of the state within a stipulated time.
The AG recommended development of IT application and use of mobile phones for receiving and acknowledging applications for the services for timely delivery.
IT Secretary Sunil Barnwal passed the buck on the personnel department for the poor show.
"Personnel department is the nodal department related to this; we provide only technical support in this regard. A software has also been prepared which is used for 54 of the services of different departments are monitored. There are also provisions of imposing penalty in the cases where stipulated time frame was not maintained," said Barnwal.
"DCs have been authorized to take action against them and we can only monitor the situation through technology while rest of the things is to be done by the Personnel Department," added Barnwal.