Maharashtra's Right To Services Bill

Nearly 110 public services, including water connection and building permissions, and birth, death and domicile certificates, will now be delivered online to citizens within a stipulated time frame.And, if a government servant fails to deliver public services on time, he will face a penalty .
Amid a stormy business on Tuesday , the state government passed CM Devendra Fadnavis's pet project--the Right to Services Act. When the Bill was passed, the Opposition was absent and there was no proper debate on the Act.
While Fadnavis wanted to bring 160 services under the Act, he managed to get 110, which mostly included those delivered by local civic bodies and offices of collector, food and civil supply and water supply. Sources claimed the number of services may be later increased to over 200.
The Right to Services Act is expected to benefit the Make-In-Maharashtra campaign wherein investors and businessmen will need 35 different state permissions within minimum periods.
The Act recommends slapping a fine ranging from Rs.500 to Rs.5,000 on officials for not delivering services within the prescribed time frame, and also suggested penal action against citizens if they try to obtain services by submitting false documents.
The Act also provides for a unique application number to the citizen seeking services to monitor the status of his application real time. “ A citizen can approach the first appellate authority to complain against an officer for delay in services. If the first appellate officer doesn't satisfy the complainant, he can approach the second appellate authority and finally the state commissioner,“ said a source. To ensure that the two-tier appellate system gets activated, the Act proposes to set up a state commission for right to services and designate a few officials in the departments concerned as first and second appellate authorities similar to the structure that works under the RTI Act.
Two months ago, the cabinet issued the Right to Services ordinance, which empowered officials to define services, integrate them, create service windows, designate staff for the job and start implementation. The Bill was tabled in the recent budget session of the assembly , but was not passed.