Govt to deliver services to you on time from next month
Expect a more efficient government next month onwards. Not only will citizens be legally entitled to demand a copy of a First Information Report (FIR) filed by them immediately after registration, the police verification of passports cannot be kept hanging for more than 15 days. The registration of property documents — from mortgage to leave and licence — will now have to be done in a day.
Expect a more efficient government next month onwards. Not only will citizens be legally entitled to demand a copy of a First Information Report (FIR) filed by them immediately after registration, the police verification of passports cannot be kept hanging for more than 15 days. The registration of property documents — from mortgage to leave and licence — will now have to be done in a day.
The reason: The home department and revenue department along with all 240 municipal councils and 24 of the 26 civic corporations notified public services offered under the Right to Services bill this week. This means citizens will be entitled to the most crucial public documents in a specific time frame. The only sour note is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is yet to notify the public services it will offer citizens.
But there’s a catch. This is possible only if the state’s landmark legislation, the Maharashtra Guarantee of Public Services bill, passed in the Assembly this week, gets implemented as promised.
The bill is expected to get cleared by the legislative council next week. But the deadline for all government departments to notify some of its public services, besides designating officials to implement the same and appellate authorities to address complaints, ends on July 28.
The right to services bill was passed by the state Assembly on Tuesday, but it had been promulgated as an ordinance on April 28, 2015. The ordinance laid down a three-month deadline for all and so far 125 services have been notified by all departments and another 30 are on the anvil.
The home department, which issued the notification last week, promised citizens will get a copy of the FIR filed by them immediately after registration, NOCs for passports within 21 days, attestation of documents by the home department within seven days, licences for amplified sound systems in three working days and permissions for performance of foreign artists within seven days, among others.
The revenue department, which notified its services this week, has promised to register documents from property to business within one day and deliver copies of registered documents within five days.
“We selected 15 core services that are currently used by more than 65% of the urban population. All 240 municipal councils and 24 of the 26 civic corporations (except Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Jalgaon civic body) have notified these services with the timelines prescribed. We expect the remaining two to also notify the services soon,’’ said Manisha Mhaiskar, secretary (urban development).
While the BMC can make minor variations, it will have to stick to the timeline decided by UDD, including three days for birth, marriage and death certificates.