The Orissa government, in an apparent bid to make the state administration accountable to citizens, has decided to introduce a new bill in the coming session of the Assembly.
The draft of the proposed bill — Orissa Right to Public Service Bill-2012 — was approved by the state Cabinet meeting chaired by CM Naveen Patnaik on Saturday evening.
“To begin with, the state government has decided to put 69 services under 10 different departments under purview of the proposed new law. The citizens would have the right to get particular services within the stipulated time period,” state chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. The bill has also provision of penalty for not meeting the time frame. While the initial penalty will be `500, the defaulting official would have to pay `250 per day after expiry of the fixed time frame.
As per the provision of the bill, there shall be designated authority, appellate authority and revision authority to decide whether any applicant is harassed.