Right to Public Services – 'Need of the Hour'

Presentation of Advocate Kezhokhoto Savi (national award recipient) Asst. Professor Kohima Law College & President NVCO as resource person on a training – “Sensitisation on Right to Public Services” for Group A officers from 30 departments, Govt. of Nagaland organised by Administrative Training Institute(ATI), Nagaland, Kohima on 20th Sept, 2022.

Public Service is a service which is provided by government to people. Some key Public Services are Health Care, Education, Social service for the poor and marginalised. The IAS Association, Nagaland in its recent general body meeting had also deliberated on the way forward to improve the public service delivery mechanism.

Every Citizen is entitled to hassle-free public services and redresses of his/her grievances. Accordingly, the Right to Public Services Act represents the commitment of the particular state towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievances redressal mechanism, transparency and accountability. Right to Public Services legislation in India comprises statutory laws which guarantee time-bound delivery of various public services rendered to citizens and provides mechanism for punishing the errant public servant if they are is deficient in providing the stipulated services. Earlier the Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation(NVCO) had launched Public Services Delivery campaign awareness here in the state capital Kohima during the 2016 Vigilance Awareness Week as the State Government is yet to enact this Act/law which is found to be very much applicable to the state and to clean up the system to ensure smooth delivery of services to the people and crack down on erring officials and since then every Vigilance Week NVCO go with its campaign and urged the state government to implement it.

Right to Service legislation ensures delivery of time bound services to the public. If the concerned officer fails to provide the service in time, he will have to pay a fine. Thus, it is aimed to reduce corruption among the government officials and to increase transparency and public accountability. Currently, public officials and civil servants are considered as one of the troubled sections of our society due to their slow and painful process in performing their duties. As a result, the common man, who is entitled to avail hassle-free public services and information thereof, has to face a lot of problems and pay bribes to avail the needed public services. Therefore, the buzz against corruption is now matched by Right to services related initiatives by several governments to clean up the system.

The ‘Model Public Service Law’ was one of the items included in the President’s address to Parliament on the 4th June 2009. The law is to cover functionaries providing important social services like education, health, rural development, etc., and commit them to their duties and for that purpose, legislative Department has attempted a tentative Bill titled the Public Services(Protection and regulation) Bill. Enacted by the Parliament, the Public Services(Protection and Regulation) Act, 2009 shall come into force on such date as the Central Government/State Government may, by notification, appoint and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act. This Act is to secure right to all citizens in the matter of public services provided by public authorities, facilitate transparency in the delivery of such services and to protect their interests by specifying Public Service Performance Standards, establish a Central/ State Authority for effective management of such public services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. The common framework of the state legislation includes, granting of “right to public services”, which are to be provided to the public by the designated official within the stipulated time frame. The public services which are granted as a right are generally notified through Gazette notification. Some of the commonly provided public services, including issuing caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, electric connections, voter’s card, ration cards, copies of land records, etc. within the fixed time frame. On failure to provide the service by the designated officer, the aggrieved person can approach the First Appellate Authority/Second appellate Authority. It can order the public servant to provide the needed service to the applicant and can impose penalty on the designated officer for deficiency of service without any reasonable cause. The applicant may be compensated out of the penalty imposed on the officer.