The Punjab government has provided notified services to as many as 7, 72, 94, 789 applicants up to April, 2016 since the inception of Punjab Right to Service Act, 2011 including 24,80,313 applicants during April, 2016.Disclosing this here today an official spokesman of the Government said that 3, 30,22,579 residents of Punjab have taken advantage of the notified services during the year 2015-16. Only 573 applications i.e. 0.49% of the total applications are lying pending. The Spokesman also said that this small number of pendency showed that people are aware of the RTS Act, 2011 and officials are also adhering to the timelines notified under Punjab Right to Service Act, 2011. He also said that the Commission was monitoring the progress of the pending cases and has directed the concerned of different departments to clear all the pending applications at the earliest.
The Spokesman further said that the Commission had taken suo-moto notices in group cases on the basis of Management Information System report received from districts where service delivery was delayed beyond time lines without satisfactory cause. With the intervention of the Commission about 25,999 cases have been disposed till March, 2016. Apart from this, suo-moto action in 703 cases on the complaints received by the Commission from various sources was initiated out of which 674 cases have been resolved. Approximately 29 applications left which were being pursued with the concerned authorities for early disposal, he added.He also said that out of 1237 and 259 appeals filed before the 1st and 2nd Appellate Authorities, 1233 and 254 appeals respectively have been disposed off by the concerned authorities. Similarly 38 Revisions filed before the Commission have been disposed off by the Commission.
Taking strong exception to the officers/officials not adhering to the time lines, not only the Commission initiated action against 85 such officers/officials but also also taken similar action by 2nd Appellate Authorities for willful defaulters under Punjab Right to Service Act, 2011.To facilitate people, a Help Desk with telephone No. 0172-2790182 has also been set-up in the office of Commission for providing information to General Public regarding the services being rendered under the Act; procedure for obtaining these services and other queries relating to the service delivery of notified services, added the spokesman.He further said that the Commission has so far referred more than 610 complaints not covered under the Act to various authorities for sympathetic consideration under intimation to the applicants.