Right to Service: A Critical Preview

Abstract

Basic services are so important for our well-being that everyone of us in the Society expects to have free access to them. People think it to be their basic right. There are libraries which do not contain every book but they still provide free access to people for possessing knowledge. We have free basic healthcare for which hospitals are there. These hospitals do not provide every treatment but they still save people’s lives. We have free basic education where every child has access to go to schools. Right to Decent Loos has recently been upheld especially for women who are outdoors. They have right to have safe and clean toilet, right to live with human dignity. Right to pee has thus become a National priority. And in 21 st century, people also deserve access to free delivery of the Basic Services in a “Set Time-Frame” without paying any penny. This is what is called the “Right to Service”. Maharashtra State in India had Right to Services Act known as “Maharashtra Government Servants Regulation of Transfer and Prevention of delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act-2005”. Rules for implementation of this act were notified in 2013. Taken together with its rules, no officer can “Delay” a response to a Citizen’s Application, Representation, or Complaint for over 90 days. The tragedy, however, is that the government bodies are still not cognizant of this people-friendly notification. Citizens too are not aware of this Act. Hence, the severity of the Act is still not realized.