By IANS,
New Delhi : As the union cabinet approved the citizen’s charter bill Thursday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the bill attacked the federal structure by compelling states to adopt it.
“The cabinet has cleared the citizen’s charter bill but they have mandated this act on the states as well, forgetting that more than 10 states have their own citizen’s charter law. Some of them are stronger than the centre’s bill,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters.
“This would be an attack on federal structure. The centre should formulate a law only for central services,” he said.
“At best, they should make it a model law. The states that do not have a citizen’s charter already can follow it to make their own legislations,” Javadekar added.
The union cabinet gave an in-principle approval to a Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill providing for time-bound delivery of services like issuing of pension, passport, caste certificates and death certificates.
According to the bill, any failure by a government official in delivery of services will invite a penalty of Rs.250 per day, subject to a maximum of Rs.50,000.
The bill, once passed by parliament, will be binding on the states.
An official said the draft bill would now go back to the ministries of law, home affairs and personnel and training as it required fresh paraphrasing. This means that it need not go to the cabinet again and can be directly tabled in parliament.