Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Citizens today expect more transparent, accessible, time bound and responsive service from the public sector. As public services are funded by citizens, they have the right to expect a particular quality of service that is provided efficiently at a reasonable cost. Public service deliveries like urban and rural local bodies, government hospitals, police stations are the points of interface with the government for the vast majority of citizen in the country. It is at this level that citizen perceptions are formed on whether government is delivering a better life for all or not. Change and improvement are especially difficult at those interface points for a variety of reasons. Over the last few years, the government has prioritized the improvement of public service institutions as part of the overall public service reform agenda.

The introduction to the Maharashtra Right to Service Act 2015 needs to be seen in conjunction with a move in many Indian states. The act introduced to ensure citizen centric governance and effective public service delivery mechanism. The act itself provides for penalties and punishment if officials are found wanting in delivering services to citizens in a time bound manner. Maharashtra is the first state to launch online the RTS act. Citizen can apply for birth, death, domicile and marriage certificates online under RTS act. It would be mandatory for the departments in the Maharashtra government include municipal corporations and regional offices covered under the act. The state government had notified 224 services spread across various departments under the RTS drive. The act currently covers 156 online services and 22 departments. ‘Aaple sarkar’ web portal and an App was launched on Jan 26, 2015 with the grievance redressal module for 31 departments.

Methodology

The research paper is based on primary and secondary sources. There are no large scale studies or surveys on MRTSA to provide systematic secondary sources of data. As a result this paper by an large depends on the dash board on web portal ‘Aaple sarkar’.

The paper adopts the method of descriptive review. The paper is divided into four sections. The second section deals with introduction and implementation of RTS in Indian states. The third section deals with the current status of implementation of act and impact on public service delivery in Maharashtra. The fourth and last section puts forth the concluding observations.