Paperwork delay: New agreement to penalise officials

Your application for safety clearance from the fire department or certificate for death, birth, domicile and caste to the civic agency or area sub-divisional magistrate will soon get cleared in time. Atul Mathur reports.

Your application for safety clearance from the fire department or certificate for death, birth, domicile and caste to the civic agency or area sub-divisional magistrate will soon get cleared in time.

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The Delhi government is all set to implement state-level agreement (SLA) with almost 35 departments that would stipulate the maximum time these departments will be allowed to take to clear applications and files. Any delay beyond the stipulated time frame will attract penalty on head of the department of the office concerned.

Senior Delhi government officials said the pilot project with five departments proved successful and they will now have 35 departments of Delhi government, MCD, NDMC, Delhi Police and fire department under its ambit.

The programme, said officials, is likely to be inaugurated in first week of April. Sources said the chief minister has been trying to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to officially launch the scheme.

Though the government has implemented SLA in some of its departments, it has not been able to penalise officials in any case of delay. The scheme, however, is currently toothless as the government does not have the authority to slap penalty.

"We are amending the conduct rules to give teeth to the SLA scheme. Once the rules are amended we will not only be able to penalise erring official, but will also be able to reward an officer for his/her efforts to implement the programme," said an information technology department official. The IT department is the nodal agency to implement the scheme.

SLA, said officials, was initiated by the Prime Minister's Office and Delhi was chosen as a pilot project. It stipulates maximum time a department should take to process a particular application. Any delay will attract penalty on the department head at the rate of R10 a day.

Officials said people would be able to track their applications on the internet. Issuing of ration cards, registration of births and deaths in MCD and NDMC, issuing of learner's and permanent licences by the transport department and registration under value added tax are already subjected to service level agreements.

Officials said they will now bringing the power discoms, Delhi Police, fire department, and drug control under its ambit.

Officials said even the registration of FIRs would be covered under the SLA. However, Delhi Police has decided to keep issuance of fire arms licence out of SLA.