Chief minister Nitish Kumar waves at party members while taking off for his Seva Yatra at the state hangar in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Nov. 9: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today emphasised on reviewing the Right to Public Service Act during his Seva Yatra at the state hangar before leaving for Bettiah in West Champaran district to start his yatra.

“I will focus on the development work and the steps being taken for implementation of the Right to Public Service Act. Apart from all this, my priority will be to review all the development projects, welfare schemes apart from visiting offices, blocks and villages,” Nitish said.

The act, which is already effective from August 15 this year, guarantees delivery of around 50 services under 20 broad categories from government offices within stipulated time.

Officials found to be lacking in meeting the service delivery deadlines is supposed to end up paying fine at the rate of Rs 250 a day with a maximum of Rs 5,000.

Nitish today kicked off the first phase of Seva Yatra during which he will visit West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Sheikhpura, Arwal, Saharsa, Banka, Rohtas, Aurangabad, Purnea and Siwan.

Before leaving Patna, Nitish said he would stay for two to four days in each district, depending upon its size.

He added that he would hold the janata darbar. “Apart from holding public meetings in each district and assessing the development work, I will also hold janata darbar during my yatra,” Nitish said.

As the yatra aims to assess the development work in the state, he spoke about the importance of the yatra. Nitish said: “This would be different from other yatras, where I will scrutinise work being undertaken by the government. I will also check whether all those work is being carried out in the correct manner or not. I want to ensure quality work so that the benefit reaches people standing last in our society.” The chief minister added: “I want to ensure peace and harmony in the state, where only brothers will exist that leads to my goal of justice with development.”

Thousands of Nitish supporters, including cabinet ministers, MLAs and MLCs, had gathered at the state hanger with flowers and bouquets in hands. Chief secretary Navin Kumar, director-general of police Abhayanand and water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary are accompanying Nitish on his yatra. He will spend four days in West Champaran.