This year’s Independence Day, is an auspicious occasion not because it is the usual August 15 but it is the day for states like Punjab, Bihar, Kerala etc to implement the Right to Service Act. With this Act government officials who do not perform the common man’s jobs within a stipulated timeframe will face a fine that can go up to Rs.5000. With the implementation of the Right to Service Act, people will no longer have to run around government offices to get their work done, it is learnt. The officials who do not do common the man’s work within a stipulated timeframe should be punished.
This move to hasten the delivery of services should not be restricted only in government offices but to be extended to corporations, boards, colleges and universities etc where salary is paid from government coffers. For instance, I have to point out that in establishments like Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, it takes a year or more for approving the posts of assistant professors duly recruited by statutory boards constituted by affiliated colleges for the purpose. The candidate and his/her parents have to run pillar to post to get the post approved by the University Syndicate. The Syndicate is often ruled by some academics with political sponsorship and those privileged ones with political backing get their jobs done by the Syndicate immediately. And those with no political support have to go finally to judicial forums for get the job done. The cases lost by the University and now pending in the High Court are indications of the callous act of the University Syndicate. There is none to pin down the corrupt officials and one hopes that the Right to Service Act possesses adequate teeth to contain the corrupt. And in that case amount of fine should be enhanced from Rs 5000 along with sending the corrupt officials to prison.
I hope the Right to Service Act would be a big relief to people who run from pillar to post and are forced to pay bribes to get their work done in government offices.
K A Solaman
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