Right to Service Act: Registering and Licensing Authority first in Chandigarh to roll-out online complaint facility
Residents can now easily complain online in case of any delay in delivery of services; the UT had adopted the Punjab RTS Act in January 2018 and constituted a commission later in April; rules were formulated in February this year
The UT Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) has become the flag-bearer among the administrative departments now that city residents will be able to file online complaints under the Right to Service (RTS) Act on the websites of the respective service provider departments.
UT RTS commissioner KK Jindal said, “The RLA has already uploaded the services being offered by the department under the RTS, along with the time limit for delivery of a service, names and contact information of designated officers, first appellate authority and the second appellate authority on its website.”
“Next, users availing department services will be able to make complaints online. The service is expected to be operational in a week’s time. Aggrieved users can already make manual complaints under the RTS,” said Jindal.
POWER TO THE CITIZENS
The RTS grants power to the citizens to file complaints and seek grievance redressal in case of non-delivery of designated services within the stipulated time period.
The RTS commissioner has already taken up uploading of designated services and the appellate authorities on other UT departments and MC website as well.
“The other two departments under the deputy commissioner—estate office and DC office—are also under process to upload the requisite information online and facilitate filing of complaints under RTS on their department websites,” Jindal added.
RTS COMMISSION HAS NO WEBSITE
Significantly, the UT RTS Commission itself is yet to get its own website, but it hopes to get one operational within a week.
“A proposal for the website was sent 15 days ago and is awaiting approved by the administration. It is expected to be granted this week. As soon as the domain name is sanctioned, we will put up all the requisite information online. In time, the site will be turned into an interactive one to even allow filing of complaints, checking of complaint status, orders etc,” Jindal said.
The UT adopted the Punjab RTS Act in January 2018 and constituted a one-man commission later in April. The rules were formulated by KK Jindal in February this year and have been awaiting administration’s approval since then.
Last month, the UT notified the RTS rules, which made the Act fully operational in the city. With that, the onus then shifted onto the department heads to publicise the notified services of their departments both online and in their respective offices.
188 SERVICES NOTIFIED
It was in September when the UT had notified 188 services under the Right to Service Act, holding officers accountable if they don’t provide services to applicants within the resolution period fixed in the notification.
Out of the 188 services notified under the Act, 90 belong to the municipal corporation (MC), 39 to deputy commissioner (DC) office, 19 to the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA), 17 to the estate department, 11 to the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) and 12 to the State Transport Authority.
