Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday unveiled the Punjab Right to Service (RTS) Act-2011,ensuring time bound delivery of 67 services to citizens as a matter of right. Launching the Act in the inaugural function of public interaction to disseminate the new legislation and seek suggestions from public to further improve it,Badal described it a historic moment for empowering citizens. This Act strikes at the root cause of corruption by taking away discretion of the government officials besides binding them to deliver time bound services, Badal,who took to the stage armed with a microphone a power point presentation,said. Describing it a furtherance of Anna Hazares anti-corruption crusade,he said that by making the system transparent through e-governance and e-tendering,the state government has struck heavily on corrupt practices. If Congress led UPA government had gone for e-tendering for allocation of spectrum,there would not have been any 1.76 lakh crore 2G Scam, he said,adding that the RTS coupled with governance reforms and IT enabled services besides e-governance would make it a most successful model of governance. Giving the background of the Act,Badal said that it was planned as a part of governance reforms initiative. He said that he wanted to empower citizen as a King doing away the culture of Mai Baap prevalent since the British rule. The purpose of this Act was to empower citizens by restoring their dignity,reposing their trust in the transparency of administration and making administration accountable to the public,the Deputy Chief Minister added. Elimination of affidavits,doing away with discretionary powers of tehsildars allowing citizens for self-certification rather than by gazetted officers and self-certification of building plans were certain measures that empowered the citizens, Badal said. Giving the salient features of the Act,Badal said it was backed by statutory provisions ensuring timely delivery of services and has definite scope for improvement. More services would be added in the scope of this Act. On the issue of notified services,Badal said that the RTS Act covers 12 services of local government department,nine of transport department,eight of housing and urban development department,six of revenue department,four each of health and home,two of social security,one each of food & civil supplies and rural water supply and 20 services of the police department. The Act provides sanction of building plans within 30 days,occupation certificate within 15 days,NOC within 21 days,conveyance deed within 15 days,No Due Certificates within seven days,re-transfer of property within 15 days,re-transfer of property in case of death within 45 days,permission to mortgage within seven days,completion certificate within 15 days,sanction of water connection within seven days and sewage connection also in seven days. Now citizens would be able to get copies of birth and death certificates within two days,post-mortem reports within three days,certified copies of record within seven days,demarcation of land within 21 days,attestation of uncontested mutations within 15 days. Sukhbir said that a fortnight long campaign has been launched in all the districts and a secretary-level officer would hold citizen awareness-cum-interaction programme at block level to educate the public regarding the provisions of the new Act. The deputy commissioners from all the districts,all the financial commissioners and secretaries,who have been deputed in the districts to spread awareness on the Act were present in the function.
