1. Right to Public Services (RTS) - An Act where Citizen becomes the “King” - Lok Satta TN’s Presentation

2. Citizen’s Right to Public Services (RTS) Present situation: Endless delays, red-tape and harassment even for basic govt. services (certificates, etc.) Citizen’s Charters in TN only in name Citizens have no explicit, statutory right to services (RTS)

3. Citizen’s Right to Public Services (RTS) Present situation: Corruption & poor accountability in government offices Erring officials not penalized; citizens not compensated for loss; poor grievance redressal Unlike MP, UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Delhi, etc. TN still does not have RTS for citizens

4. Statutory Law Guarantee’s time bound delivery of services for various public services rendered by the Government to citizen Provides mechanism for punishing the errant public servant who is deficient in providing the service stipulated under the statute. A BILL “to lay down an obligation upon every public authority to publish citizens charter stating therein the time within which specified goods shall be supplied and services be rendered and provide for a grievance redressal mechanism for non-compliance of citizens charter and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” (Defn in LSP’s Proposal)

5. Reduce corruption among the government officials Increase transparency and public accountability Effects of the Law

6. Framework 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 to be granted as a right under the legislations are generally notified separately through Gazette Notification Common Services - includes issuing caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, electric connections, voter’s card, ration cards, copies of land records, etc.

7. Frameword (Contd..) On failure to provide the service by the designated officer within the given time or rejected to provide the service, the aggrieved person can approach the First Appellate Authority. The First Appellate Authority, after making a hearing, can accept or reject the appeal by making a written order stating the reasons for the order and intimate the same to the applicant, and can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant. An appeal can be made from the order of the First Appellate Authority to the Second Appellate Authority, who can either accept or reject the application, by making a written order stating the reasons for the order and intimate the same to the applicant, and can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant or can impose penalty on the designated officer for deficiency of service without any reasonable cause, which can range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 5000 or may recommend disciplinary proceedings. The applicant may be compensated out of the penalty imposed on the officer. The appellate authorities has been granted certain powers of a Civil Court while trying a suit under Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, like production of documents and issuance of summon to the Designated officers and appellants.

8. Efforts of Lok Satta (So far..) Culmination of efforts mounted by the Lok Satta party for 15 long years. Dr. JP recalled that the Lok Satta had embarked on the mission to ensure services to citizens as a matter of right way back on October 2, 1998. On that day, the Lok Satta submitted a People's Charter to the then Governor C. Rangarajan seeking delivery of 36 services in a time-bound manner. Following its efforts, the State Government in 2001 ushered in a citizen's charter in regard to five services in municipalities and implemented it for some time. The right to services is the No. 1 demand of the Lok Satta Party's Surajya movement launched in August 2012 Lok Satta delegation appeared before the Parliamentary Committee and requested it to adopt a Bill on citizens' services. The committee requested it to draft the Bill bringing about convergence between delivery of normal and electronic services. The Lok Satta drafted the Bill and submitted it to the Parliamentary Committee and the Union Government. Dr. JP met the Union Law Minister last month and requested him to ensure its introduction in Parliament.

9. States which has RTS.... MP – First State – 18 Aug 2010 - Shivraj Singh Chauhan led BJP government in M.P. Bihar – 2 nd – 25 July 2012 Delhi Punjab Rajasthan HP Kerala Uttarakhand Haryana UP Jharkhand Karnataka Chattisgarh J&K Odisha Assam

10. Implementing State(u)s

11. Punjab Punjab - certified copies of all documents at village level, record of land rights (Jamabandi), girdawri, mutation, demarcation of land, sanction of water supply/sewerage connection, certified copies of birth/death certificates, registration certificate of vehicles, fitness certificate for commercial vehicles, issue of driving licence and renewal of arms licence, among others. All kinds of police verifications including passport verification, issue of various certificates such as caste, OBC, income, residence, registration of all kinds of documents, sanction of all social security benefits for old age/ handicapped/ widow would also come under its purview, he said

12. Bihar Bihar has the best system since it is linked to information technology, which helps in monitoring appeals. There are also provisions like online RTI and seizure of property of errant officials. MP has an appellate authority – Transparency International As many as 50 services spread over 10 departments will be made available to the people under the Right to Service Act, the principal secretary (General Administration) Deepak Kumar told reporters here Bihar connecting to IT - The applications of the people seeking various services will be fed into the computers and the applicants will be provided an unique identity number which the concerned applicant were peruse on the website of the general administration department for progress on their request, he said. The applicants can also seek status of their application on by sending SMS on their mobile phones by typing 'RTPS space 56677', Kumar said, adding an applicant not having a cellphone can dial on a toll free number to seek an update on their applications.

13. Uttarakhand & HP Uttarakhand - Revenue, health and family welfare, transport, potable water, social development, urban development and other sectors. HP - Revenue, Transport, social development, urban development and others will be bound to provide citizen centric services within stipulated time period, as a matter of right.

14. Delhi fixes a financial penalty in the range of Rs 10 to Rs 200 per day for failing to deliver services while making it a right of every citizen to obtain time bound delivery of services from certain government agencies. A maximum penalty of Rs 5,000 can be imposed on officials for failing to deliver services. The departments which have been included under the legislation are Revenue, Food and Civil Supplies, Transport and Trade and Taxes as well as civic agencies MCD and NDMC.

15. Jharkhand Payment of social security pension, new connection for electricity, making and renewal of driving licence, issuance of smart card, ration cards, agriculture related licences, correction of power bills, payment of scholarship, post-mortem report, duplicate driving license, offering licenses for ration and medical shops, and caste/income/residential certificates have been brought under purview of the Right to Service Act. As per the Act, bill correction has to be done within 24 hours to 7 days, while post-mortem report has to be issued within 3 days. Similarly, any complaint related to payment of social security pension has to be cleared within 21 days. Driving license must be issued within 45 days and licenses for shops and medicine shops need to be issued within a month.

16. Rajasthan The act aims at a time-bound rendering of 108 services of 15 departments. Appeals regarding all sanctions, no objection certificates and licences of 15 departments including power, police, health, revenue, UDH and others could be made to the designated officer of the department.

17. Kerala – 13 th State In the first phase, 13 government services and nine services related to police department will come under the purview of the legislation, which provides for action, including a penalty, against the designated officer if he fails to provide the service within the time frames. The fine ranges from Rs500 to Rs5,000. Certificates of birth, death, denomination of caste, income, domicile; power connection to households and commercial shops; domestic water connections; issue of ration cards are among government services covered by the draft bill. The services related to police department include receipts to complaints filed with police; issue of copy of FIR; police intervention in grievous crimes; time-bound verification of passport and employment status; issue of copy of post-mortem report; and releasing vehicles under custody.

18. Karnataka - Sakala The Department of Personal and Administrative Reform (DPAR), Government Of Karnataka with the support of NIC successfully implemented the Sakala scheme under the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act. The Chief Minister of Karnataka Sadananda Gowda inaugurated Sakala at the podium block in Visvesvaraya Tower, Bangalore on 2 April 2012. A total of 151 services in 11 major government departments (Commercial Taxes, Education, Food and Civil Supplies, Health and Family Welfare, Home, Labour, Revenue, Transport and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj ) are covered by Sakala. The official website of Sakala: http://sakala.kar.nic.in provides a tracking application by which the status of an application is provided to citizens. In case of any delay or default in delivering the requested service, the applicant can seek compensation at the rate of 20 per day of delay subject to a maximum of 500 from the officer concerned. The system updates the citizen on the progress of the service request through SMS to the mob number specified in the application.http://sakala.kar.nic.in Karnataka Sakala Services Act is now effectively implemented with 30 departments/organisations providing 265 services to the citizens of Karnataka. Citizens could access details from www.sakala.kar.nic.in Already, more than 1.6 crore citizens have availed various services under this portal. This has helped to re-orient the brand image of the Government by providing efficient service and minimising corruption on service delivery.

19. Odisha & Assam Odisha - 75 selected services from 11 departments in this bill, which would be sent to the governor seeking his assent. Assam - The notified service is likely to include ration cards, birth and death certificates, water, power connections and works related to land revenue departments.The state government from time to time will notify the services, including provisions of fast track service delivery or Tatkal Sewa.

20. Gujarat? However, four controversial bills are yet to be approved. These are the Gujarat Lokayukta Aayog Bill 2013, the Gujarat (Right of Citizens to Public Services) Bill 2013, the Gujarat State School Service Commission Bill 2013 and the Universities Laws (amendment) Bill 2013.

21. Demo (Karnataka site) http://sakala.kar.nic.in/gsc_home.aspx

22. Citizen’s Right to Public Services (RTS) Issues for discussion/proposals: Explicit, statutory and liberal right to all public services for empowering citizens – on lines of the historic RTI Act RTS to curb bribery and corruption in government offices Mandatory, statutory Citizen’s Charters for all government offices for public services – no supply constraint

23. Citizen’s Right to Public Services (RTS) Issues for discussion/proposals: Clearly defined - Time-limits for services and grievances (1-3 days) -Penalties for delays – Rs. 250/day upto Rs. 50,000 -Rewards for performance -Compensations to citizens Grievance Redressal Commission – integration with Information Commission Services Delivery to be convergent with Electronic Services Delivery (EDS)

24. Q&A