Punjab Government and Elections

    Less then one year left for the Assembly elections of Punjab State, and it appears that ruling alliance (Sharomani Akali Dal and Bhartiya Janta Party) has put themselves in the mold of elections, as scores of announcements, inaugurations, foundation stones, populist schemes, public friendly initiatives are taking place in the state. Even few days back there was news in the media about preparations by the state electricity corporation for summer season when state is under massive gap between demand and supply, and for people of the state it is worst and intolerable time to pass it because of power cuts and scorching heat outside. Certainly this year belongs to the public of state as far government policies are concerns.
    In there efforts to reach maximum number of people, state government is using technology and through SMS’s it is forwarding reports of development projects which took place especially of electricity sector and air travel sector. Details of both SMS’s categories are-

• In the year 2013 Punjab State will become power surplus state and every household of the state will get 24 hours electricity, due to investment in the power sector of half the trillion of rupees during past four years and these power projects will generate ten thousand megawatts of electricity.
• Soon from Mohali, Amritsar and Ludhiana Airports International flights will start and from Sahnewal and Bhathinda domestic flights will commence.
• Jagriti Magazine will get facelift and through this magazine state government will count its milestones, this magazine will available to the public free of cost.

Another initiatives state government has in pipelines and soon it will comes into force is Right To Service, which will help general public to get there work done in score of government department in set time frame, total forty eight services are bound to include in Right To Service Act, services like ration cards, F.I.R, Birth and Death certificates, License, Registries will comes under the ambit of RTS and failure to provide services in stipulated time by government departments there will be provision of fine from rupees five hundred to five thousand rupees, as per belief of experts it will comes into force through ordinance after budget session and it will not put in assembly by government in anticipation of obstacles from opposition parties. Under Right To Service Act below coded time frame is going to set in different government department –

• One Day – At Village level authentication of all the documents by Patwari.
• One Day – At tehsil level Sub Registrar or Joint Registrar will issue sale deed, lease deed, GPA, Partnership deed and other documents registration.
• One Day – S.H.O. will have to register FIR or DDR.
• Two Days – Birth and Death certificate of current year.
• Two Days – Under Hindu Marriage, Registration of marriage.
• Three Days – Birth and Death certificate of past years.
• Three Days – Big purchase or expansion registration.
• Seven Days – Local bodies, rural water supply, sanitation department will issue water supply and sewerage connections.
• Seven Days – Tax clearance.
• Seven Days - Transfer of Vehicles.
• Seven Days - Application under armed act.
• Seven Days - Ration card.
• Seven Days – fitness certificate for commercial vehicles.
• Fifteen Days – armed or renew license.
• Fifteen Days – Issue of O.B.C. income and residence certificate.
• Fifteen Days – Certificate of prepared building.
• Fifteen Days – Selling of retransfer of property.
• Twenty One Days – R.C. of vehicles.
• Twenty One Days – Driving License of Car, Motorcycles, Scooters etc.etc.
• Twenty One Days – Police verification of every type.
• Twenty One Days – N.O.C., duplicate allotments.
• Thirty Days – Five hundred yard plot.
• Thirty Days – social benefits for aged, widow and handicapped persons.
• Thirty Days – Copy of Postmortem reports.
• Forty Five Days –Transfer of property in case of dead person.
• Sixty Days – No deed certificate.
• Sixty Days – All categories Handicapped ID cards.

In case desire person does not get response from any government departments in stipulated time than he/she can appeal to the concerned departments’ district Head or SDM of division or Deputy Commissioner, but along with it senior officers are complaining of shortage of staff and RTS are going to put additional burden on to them. Certainly it’s not the headaches of public and this comes into the domain of government and its employees but public is going to enjoy and benefit from RTS tool, hopefully for public lot more state government has store for them like this.