‘Every citizen entitled to hassle-free public services’
NU conducts seminar for employees & section officers
Kohima, February 22 (MExN): Nagaland University (NU) conducted one-day seminar for the university employees of Group A and section officers on February 20 at Kohima Campus, Meriema.
Advocate Kezhokhoto Savi, President, NVCO and Assistant Professor, Kohima Law College was the guest speaker.
As per a press release from Press & Media Cell, NVCO, Savi presented ‘Public Services Delivery System’ in the main session, where he underscored that every citizen is entitled to hassle-free public services and redressal of his grievances.
Accordingly, the Right to Public Services Act represents the commitment of the particular state towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievances redressal mechanism, transparency and accountability, said Savi.
He said that the Right to Public Services legislation in India comprises statutory laws which guarantee time-bound delivery of various public services rendered to citizens and provides mechanism for punishing the errant public servant, if they are deficient in providing the stipulated services.
“If the concerned officer fails to provide the service in time, he will have to pay a fine. Thus, it is aimed to reduce corruption among the government officials and to increase transparency and public accountability.”
The common framework of the state legislation includes, granting of “right to public services,” which are to be provided to the public by the designated official within the stipulated time frame.
Some of the commonly provided public services include issuing caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, electric connections, voter’s card, ration cards, copies of land records, etc within the fixed time frame.
The applicant may be compensated out of the penalty imposed on the officer, said Savi while informing the gathering that Madhya Pradesh became the first state in India to enact Right to Service Act on August 18, 2010.
Savi also talked about the introduction of similar legislations for effectuating the right to service to citizens in different states. Meanwhile, he informed that the Nagaland state government is yet to enact the Right to Public Services Act/law “which is found to be very much applicable to the state and to clean up the system to ensure smooth delivery of services to the people and crack down on erring officials.”
Earlier, the Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO) launched the Public Services Delivery campaign with an appeal to the state government to introduce similar legislation in the state.
Savi also presented several topics including NRC, CAA, RIIN, Eastern Bengal Regulation Act, Article 370A of Indian Constitution etc on different sessions.
While presenting corruption in Nagaland, he highlighted the recent CAG report, backdoor appointment, nepotism, abuse of power, etc. An open discussion was held where the officers shared opinions on issues that surround the society.
