Service level agreement: Babus to pay the price for delays

NEW DELHI: Babus cannot take it easy anymore. And if they do, they will pay the price. With the Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time-Bound delivery of Services) Bill 2011 cleared by the Delhi assembly on Monday and a notification from the office of the Lieutenant-Governor’s office expected soon, the state is all set to bring as many as 40 services under the purview of the Act to not only ensure timely delivery to the citizens but also to make the babus in government accountable.

If a public servant fails to deliver within the stipulated timeframe laid out under the Service Level Agreement then he would be liable to pay Rs 10 per day up to a maximum of Rs 200 per application to a citizen as compensation.
Apart from the 15 services already covered under the Act it is proposed to add another 25 to the list over the next one month. These include services like processing applications for new electricity connection by DISCOMS, issuance of election identity cards, inclusion of names on the electoral list, application for registration of vehicles and transfer of registration of vehicles.

The services that are already being covered under the service level agreements include issue of ration cards, registration of births and deaths, issuance of learner’s licence and issue and renewal of permanent driving licence, vehicle fitness, issue of seven types of certificates by the revenue department (income certificates , SC and OBC certificates ) and registration under Delhi Value Added Tax and Central Sales Tax Act.

To ensure real time monitoring , status of applications related to the 15 services already covered under SLAs is available on the e-monitoring portal for SLA. The information can be accessed through an esla link on the Delhi government website. In the public domain since July 2010, the site provides a complete break-up of all the applications received, number of pending cases, and total penalty cases. For instance the column on issuance of certificates by the revenue department since the SLA was entered into with the state about six months back shows that 1,17,301 applications were received.

Of these 28,397 cases are pending and as many as 34,409 cases figure in the penalty cases category. The stipulated time for issue of various certificates by the revenue department is 21 days.

The record shows that 63,130 applications were received for ration cards. As many as 17,463 cases are pending and the same number falls under the column on penalty cases as per SLA standards. The SLA standard for issue of ration cards is 45 days. The transport department’s record under SLA shows that 1,99,366 applications were received for vehicle fitness and 4,917 cases are pending. The same number falls under penalty cases.

The MCD and NDMC reflect an impressive record on registration of births and deaths. The MCD has received 4,03,265 applications and there are just two cases on the pendency list which also appear on the penalty list. In case of NDMC all 45,554 applications for birth and death registrations have been dealt with and hence there is neither any pendency nor penalty case. The stipulated timeframe for issuance of birth and death certificates is seven days.

According to secretary Information Technology, Savitur Prasad, the e-monitoring of SLA is real time assessment of performance. “The SLAs empower the citizen who can complain about the delay to the departments and seek redressal and compensation . Similarly, heads of department can track the performance off their public dealing staff and take corrective measures to deal with delays . The positive impact is already showing in terms of faster disposal of cases,” Prasad said.

He pointed out that so far the penalties imposed under the SLAs were notional but once the Act comes into effect the penalty clause will be activated.

BEING ACCOUNTABLE

Apart from the 15 services now covered under service level agreements, 25 more services are to be brought under them. These include new electricity connections by discoms, issuing of voter IDs, inclusion of names in electoral rolls, application for vehicle registration and their transfer, luxury tax registration, registration of cable operators, grant of licence for chemist shops & application for safety certification from schools Once the Delhi (Right of Citizen to Time-Bound Delivery of Services) Bill, 2011, cleared by Delhi Assembly, gets notified government servants who fail to deliver the services within the stipulated time-frame set under the SLA are liable to pay 10 per day subject to a maximum of 200 per application to the citizen as compensation for delay A competent officer will serve a notice within 15 days of payment of such compensatory cost to the defaulting govt servant In seven days, the defaulting government servant will either deposit the cost or submit a representation to the competent officer. If the representation is found satisfactory, the competent officer will issue a notice to the defaulting official