Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to make the state administration accountable to citizens, the stategovernment today decided to introduce a new bill in the Assembly for making provision of right to public service. Odisha Right to Public Service Bill-2012 was approved by the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

"To begin with, the state government has decided to put 69 services under 10 different departments under purview of the proposed new law," Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told reporters after the cabinet meeting. The citizens would have the right to get particular services within the stipulated time period, the official said adding that the provision is also called Citizen Charter.

The Bill also has provision of penalty for officials for not meeting the time frame fixed for particular service. While the initial penalty will be Rs 500, the defaulting official would have to pay Rs 250 per day after expiry of the fixed time frame, he said.

There will be designated authority, appellate authority and revision authority to decided whether any applicant is harassed by the officials. "If someone`s service cannot be met within the fixed time frame, he/she has to be given written reasons for that," the chief secretary said. Some of the departments to come under purview of the new proposed legislation are - home, health, revenue and transport, he said.

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