Bringing amendment in the Right to Service (RTS) Act, the Punjab Government has enabled the RTS Commission, along with the second appellate authority, to impose penalty.
The decision came after it was observed that there were some “practical problems” due to insufficient powers of penalty to the Commission as per the Act.“Presently, the power to impose penalty to the defaulters is only available to the second Appellate Authority, which hampered the proceedings of the Commission. The Government felt that due to insufficient powers of imposing penalty vested with the Commission, grieved persons may not get justice and the department would also not achieve the objectives as desired,” said the official spokesman.
He added, “In order to remove these difficulties, the Punjab Government amended the Punjab Right to Service Act, 2011, and inserted new clause 17 (h) below section 17 (1) (g) of Act and power of imposing penalty now be available to the Commission also.”The State Government has also notified the amendment in Punjab RTS Act, 2011, extending power of imposing penalty to the RTS Commission too.
Punjab Government was the first State to enact RTS as the Act enabled the Government to lay down legally enforceable time limits for delivery of various citizen services and provided mechanism for redressal in case the service was not provided in time, or is denied without good and sufficient reasons.
“With the passage of time, the Government faced some practical problems that came due to insufficient powers of penalty to the Commission as per the Act. Presently, power of imposing penalty is only available to Second Appellate Authority, that made the Commission’s position weak necessitating this amendment,” he added.