Bihar has formulated the draft right to service bill, which, if becomes a law, is not expected to go down well with the government servants. Under the Bihar rajya seva dene ki guarantee vidheyak, 2011, government servants will have to finish routine tasks within given deadlines, failing which, they will be penalised.

The act, was one of the promises made by chief minister Nitish Kumar, to tackle red-tapism.

According to the proposed act, the officer-in-charge of a police station in the state will have a seven day deadline to verify the credentials of an applicant for a passport. Any violation of deadline can result into a fine between Rs 500 and Rs 5, 000.

Government hospital will have three days deadline to issue a postmortem report.

The proposed law is based on the Madhya Pradesh model, with minor changes.

While the MP law covers 26 services which falls under nine departments, the Bihar draft law covers 16 services under about a dozen departments. This includes home, road transport, health, food and civil supplies, social welfare, education and power.

In Bihar, the officials are expected to pay Rs 500 to Rs 5, 000 every day after the deadline gets over. Penalty in MP is Rs 250 for every day of delay.

Under the MP law, a state residents can get a new electricity connection (urban) within ten days. In Bihar, you would have to wait for 30 days.

According to a report in the Indian Express, MP has so far received around 5.8 lakh applications under the right to service bill. Out of this, 4.93 lakh have been disposed of.

In more than 5300 cases, the state could not provide the services sought under the act.

There are 110 cases where officials could not deliver the required services within the deadline.

The state public service delivery commission, to be set up by the government soon, will act as the final appellate authority.

“We are overwhelmed by the public response to the proposed draft. We have received many suggestions and will incorporate some of them to make it more people-friendly.” GAD principal secretary Deepak Kumar, told the national daily.