Mumbai: Over 16 crore applications have been received for the notified services under the Right To Services Act and more than 15 crore applications have been disposed of by the departments. In the nine years since its constitution, RTS has delivered services for over 90% of the applications.
In one of the most revolutionary laws brought by the government of Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Right To Service Act, 2015 provides that the citizens shall be provided services by the state government in a transparent, efficient and time bound manner. In order to ensure effective implementation of this act, the Maharashtra State Commission for Right to Services has also been established.
The Maharashtra chief commissioner of RTS commission Manu Kumar Srivastav, state RTS commissioner of Konkan revenue division Baldev Singh and state RTS commissioner for Pune revenue division Dilip Shinde participated in a public discussion on Thursday at the Mumbai Happenings organised by Mumbai First. The RTS commissioners shared information about the act’s journey in nine years through an initiative to spread awareness among people about the act.
Informing the audience about the utilisation of RTS, Singh said that apart from the Aaple Sarkar digital portal, people can avail the services through physically visiting any one of the 40,255 Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendras located across the state. The commission has also started an android application and will soon launch an iOs application for Apple users. Singh also informed that over 16 crore applications have been received for the services notified under RTS in the nine years and with a success rate of over 90%, more than 15 crore applications have been disposed of.
State Chief Commissioner Srivastav informed people about the objectives of the act which is to bring accountability, transparency, timeliness and effectiveness in the services provided by the government. He also informed people about the provision of filing a first, second and third appeal over non disposal of service and the provision to penalise the designated officer with a fine of up to Rs. 5000. The act also provides for rewards to designated officers for fulfilling their respective duties without any default.
Srivastav agreed that the act made in 2015 is suffering from a tremendous lack of awareness and the commission is constantly trying to spread awareness among people. “When I joined as state chief commissioner, many people came to me and asked about my work. Till today, people confuse us with Right To Information. We are constantly working to create awareness about the existence of the commission that we exist for the citizens and not for the departments,” he said.
Soon Aaple Sarkar 2.0 For Maharashtra Citizens
People of Maharashtra will soon have a new version of Aaple Sarkar digital portal, Srivastav announced at Mumbai Happenings. He said that the request for proposal has been prepared for Aaple Sarkar 2.0 and the process is underway to start the upgradation of the digital portal. “The new version will address various issues being faced by the users including the current limitation on the size of documents to be uploaded,” he added.
