Even today, a citizen is made to wait indefinitely for a routine government service. This administrative inequality is rarely captured in government statistics. Madhya Pradesh was the first state to enact a legislation in 2010, that guaranteed time, bound delivery of essential public services. Since then, more than 20 states have adopted similar laws. The services covered a range from certificates, license, land records, municipal services, transport registration, etc.
Service Level Agreements
A 2019 study by the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, examining the laws of 22 states, found considerable variation in the definition of public services, the number of services notified, delivery timelines, penalties, compensation, transparency and appellate mechanisms. Consider a patta transfer, building plan approval, income certificate, birth certificate, trade licence, etc. The delay may have little to do with the diligence of the official. Rather, it may arise from obsolete procedures, excessive levels of approval, poor records, inadequate delegation, shortage of personnel, incompatible databases or routine inspections that have no continuing public value.
The Right to Service legislation should consequently be accompanied by a comprehensive service-process redesign. Every major citizen-facing service should be mapped from application to final delivery. Each stage should have to answer a simple question: why is this step necessary? Documents already available should not be demanded again. Approvals must be consolidated and powers should be delegated to the lowest competent level. Risk-based inspections should replace routine inspections. Digitisation should remove steps, rather than merely put existing bureaucracy online. AI and data analytics must be effectively used and a strong escalation and monitoring system must be established.
Most right to service laws provide for designated officers, stipulated timelines, appeals and financial penalties. Some states have gone further and established independent commissions. If hundreds of applications for a particular service are delayed because the department has inadequate staff or a defective workflow, penalising individual junior officials is unlikely to solve the problem.
From citizen grievance to citizen feedback
Another missing ingredient in most Right to Service frameworks is a genuine feedback loop. Tamil Nadu should publish data for every major department: applications received, percentage delivered within the stipulated period, average processing time, rejection rates, appeals, complaints, penalties and citizen satisfaction. The government should periodically ask why a particular service generates so many appeals or why one district consistently performs worse than another. This will turn the Right to Service from a legal compliance mechanism into an instrument of continuous administrative improvement.
The author is a former IAS officer and insolvency professional.
