Right of Citizens Bill likely in coming Parliament session

 Union Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, V Narayanaswamy, on Wednesday said that the Centre was pushing for the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bil, 2011, to bring in transparency and uniformity in providing speedy services to citizens across the country.

Addressing a delegation of officials from eight states at a regional conference, ‘Learning for Success’, here, the minister said the Centre was pushing the bill to also ensure a corruption-free governance.

The bill is likely to be taken up in the coming Parliament session.

Narayanaswamy said the bill also proposes imposition of penalty on government officials, up to the tune of Rs 250 per day, for delay in providing services listed under it.

The bill covers the gram panchayats and all the departments in the states and the Union ministries.

Praising the Karnataka government’s initiative, Sakaala, Narayanaswamy said the model had become a guiding force for the Centre to prepare the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bil, 2011.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Sakaala was the State government’s flagship programme and as many as 447 services were being delivered through it with 98 per cent success ratio.

He said a few more services would be added to the list and Sakaala re-engineered to make it more citizen-friendly.