Patna, March 20: Delay in delivery of services to people within a stipulated time frame has started taking its toll on the state government employees. Rs 7.5 lakh has been realised from over 1,000 public servants in the past one year for missing the deadline.

The latest inclusion in the list of public servants declared defaulter under the Right to Public Service (RTPS) Act, 2011, is the circle officer of Chanpatia block in West Champaran district. The officer, Ravinder Kumar Sinha, has been asked to pay Rs 62,500 as penalty for his failure to deliver services within the stipulated time.

Sinha was found to be sitting over 250 applications seeking land possession and mutation certificates for months, leaving the local residents in the lurch.

Such applications, according to the rules, should be disposed of within 21 wor- king days.

Finding it difficult to get the certificates issued from the block office on time, the applicants complained against the officer concerned to the district magistrate, Sridhar Chiruvelu. He ordered a probe by a senior officer.

The investigation found the allegations against Sinha to be true. Subsequently, Chiruvelu imposed a fine of Rs 62,500 on the circle officer. Sinha has to pay the penalty from his pocket (read the amount would deducted from his salary).

Under the RTPS Act, in force from August 15, 2011, Rs 250 can be realised as fine from a public servant for each day’s delay in delivering a service.

Chiruvelu also imposed a fine of Rs 54,000 and Rs 37,500 on Bettiah sadar circle officer Pramod Kumar Srivastava and his Nautan counter- part Surendra Kumar Singh, respectively.

The penalty amount would be deducted from their salary from the next month.

Sources said 216 applications related to land possession and mutation certificates were pending for disposal in the office of the Bettiah sadar circle officer, while 150 applications were waiting for disposal in the office of the Nautan circle officer.

“The information regarding deduction of fine from the salary of the circle officers concerned has been given to the drawing and disbursing officers,” said deputy collector, land reforms, Majeet Kumar.

He said the fine was imposed on the three circle officers of the district on March 13 and the officials concerned were subsequently informed about the action.

Sources in the general administration department said the highest penalty was realised from Sharda Kumari, the block development officer (BDO) of Paliganj in Patna rural.

She was asked to pay a penalty of Rs 1 lakh after she failed to issue caste and domicile certificates to 20 applicants within the stipulated time in 2012.

The delay led to denial of benefits under the social security scheme of the government to the applicants belonging to Rani Akabarpur panchayat. The sufferers complained to the first appellant cum sub-divisional officer Santosh Kumar, who punished the BDO for denial of services to the people under the RTPS Act.

“We have received appeal against 1,188 public servants, who have been found to be guilty of not providing services to people in the stipulated time,” said a senior officer of the general administration department, adding that the purpose behind initiating the punitive action against public servants was to accelerate the process of timely delivery of services.

He said the government offices across the state had received 3.9 crore applications seeking services under different heads of the RTPS till March 18. Of them, 3.8 crore applications have been disposed of.