In a bid to make ‘Right to Guarantee of Services Act (RTGSA), Jharkhand’ effective, the World Bank has agreed to infuse a sum of Rs. 300 Crores in this project. This financial assistance comes as a big relief to the state government, which has been breathing hard for developing mechanism and infrastructure for this fund-starved people friendly project. The funds will largely be used to give a thrust to the Act meant to ensure a time-bound delivery of close to 200 services.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Ranchi, Manoj Kumar today said that the entire fund will be transferred to the government within a month. Addressing a one-day workshop organized by the Department of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha here on Wednesday, Kumar said to BDO, CO, the police officials under Ranchi district administration and other stakeholders that scarcity of fund was a major roadblock for the implementation of this Act. Now that the fund will be made available soon, everyone will have to go an extra mile to ensure the timely delivery of each and every service to people. Other issues related to this were also discussed in the workshop.
Kumar said that a major chunk of the share of Ranchi from this Rs. 300 Crore would be invested in infrastructure development and spreading awareness for this Act, which was passed as ago as 2011 and has not been able to benefit people the way it was expected. He said that now a total of 198 services have been brought under RTGSA. Applicants seeking services have been provided with two levels of complaint redressal forum regarding RTGSA in case the service is delayed.
“We have not been able to make much progress in terms of RTGSA due to lack of funds, manpower crunch and awareness. But things will certainly change once we get required fund. At present we are working through a website developed by IT Dept in collaboration with Dept of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha. The government is working on a separate website dedicated to the RTGSA, which will be formed soon,” he added.
On the other hand, an official present in the workshop said on the condition of anonymity that the irony is that even after five years since the Act has been enacted; executing officials’ basic requirements like additional computer operators or printer, for that matter, to make this Act affective have largely remained unfulfilled. If this continues, it will be extremely difficult for them to deliver.
The services under the Act include birth, death income proof, and caste proof certificates, ration card, Aadhaar Card to grievances related to water and electricity bills among others to citizen of the State. The Act also ensures a minimum penalty of Rs. 500, which could extend to Rs. 5,000 to the official(s) found responsible for delay in service to any applicant or complainant in any case.
The implementation of the Act has largely remained lackadaisical due to lack of required fund, mechanism and awareness right since it was passed in 2011 by the State government.