PATNA: Riding high on an unprecedented mandate, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has begun administrative reforms. He has initiated a number of steps to root out corruption and guarantee prompt service by the bureaucracy.
Kumar plans to introduce a Right to Service Bill, which envisages a stipulated time for services to citizens, such as issuing a ration card, power connection and birth and death certificates.
This is meant to crack down on Bihar’s notoriously inefficient bureaucracy. Citizens who till now had to wait inordinately and make multiple trips to government offices and pay bribes for simplest of state-related work, will be able to demand services within a stipulated time, once the bill becomes law. The bill envisages censure and punishment to bureaucrats who fail to deliver.
Kumar has already asked officials to spend more time in the hinterland and make fewer trips to Delhi. Officials will be allowed to make only one trip to the Capital to pursue an issue.
Coming back with a stronger mandate, Kumar is able to maintain and boost the momentum of reforms he had initiated during his first term. “You can say I was quite optimistic of our victory. All along my campaign, I kept ruminating on so many things which I felt the NDA government should be implementing straightaway. Now that I am back on the saddle, you will see many things unfolding in days and months to come,†Kumar told ET.
He said he was keen on improving efficiency and accountability in the system. “The people have a right to seek public utility services like procurement of ration cards, power connections, birth certificates from government officials and agencies. Concerned officials are duty-bound to deliver such services to the people. But in practice, people are kept waiting for days and even have to cough up money for the purpose. But after enactment of the Right to Service Bill, people will be within their rights to seek such services within a definite time from officials and employees who if found wanting will be liable for punishment,†he said.
The proposed bill will be an additional arsenal along with the Bihar Special Court Act, 2009. The Act enables the government to confiscate property of corrupt officials even in trial stage. At least 14 officials, including IAS officers SS Verma and KP Singh and the former DGP Narain Mishra, have been punished under the Act.
The government has declared that it will open schools in all the buildings confiscated under the Act. “Very soon, you will hear the news that the government has set up schools in confiscated buildings. We had promised it and we will deliver on it,†the chief minister said.
Kumar is also introducing reforms to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the state. He has asked senior officials to prepare a blue print to weed out corruption from scheme’s functioning in the state. This was also an electoral promise. “The new MNREGA model will take care of the corruption worries. Even we will appoint Lokpals to fight corruption at the grass roots level,†the chief minister said.