Timely access to 441 services: Assam launches State Commission for Right to Public Services

Guwahati, Dec 1: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday dedicated to the people the Assam State Commission for the Right to Public Services, which heralds the dawn of a new citizen-centric governance architecture and sets a new milestone in transparency and accountability.

Citizens will now have the right to timely delivery of 441 public services, and accountability will be fixed in case they are denied with a defined grievance redressal mechanism. The number of days within which a service should be delivered will be put up in the portal.

"Technology will tell us how many days the file was on a particular table and fix responsibility. The officer concerned will be liable for it," Sarma said.

In the departments, the first appellate authority will have power to impose fine in the range Rs 100-5,000 and the second appellate authority can impose fine of up to Rs 7,000. Sarma said that aggrieved citizens can also approach the Commission directly or after going through the two appellate authorities.

"Even the chief secretary can be fined. The fine for the delay will have to be paid by an officer from his pocket and it will go to the aggrieved person," he said.

He asked the three-member Commission to tour the State and interact with officials. The RTPS portal was created under the World Bank Financed Assam Citizen Centric Service Delivery Project of the Administrative Reforms and Training Department to allow citizens to apply for ARTPS notified services online and also to promote proactive disclosure related to citizens' entitlements under the Act and procedures for accessing ARTPS services.

The Sewa Setu portal has so far received over 1.56 crore applications for different services and 90 per cent of them have been disposed of.

By

Staff Reporter