Patna, April 4: Preparations are afoot in Bihar to equip the government officials with necessary skills which would enable them deliver the notified services to people in stipulated time.

This is being done as the state legislature has already cleared the bill for enactment of right to service act. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced that the people of the state would start getting the benefit of this act, which calls for delivery of certain services to people within stipulated time, from August 15 this year.

Bihar Prashasnik Sudhar Mission (BPSM) is busy charting out the training module for conducting special training programmes for the state government employees who would be responsible for delivering the services to the people in stipulated time.

BPSM is a joint venture of UK’s department for international development (DFID) and government of Bihar. It is responsible for implementing the Bihar governance and administrative reforms programme (BGARP).

“To begin with, two officials from each department and each district would be trained and these trained people would impart training to other officials of departments and districts concerned, for effective implementation of right to service act,” general administration department principal secretary Deepak Kumar, who also holds the post of BPSM director, told The Telegraph.

One of the major components of the training programme would be to equip the officials with necessary skill so that they can help people file applications for availing the services under the provisions of the new act. “This is being done so that people’s applications are not rejected on the ground that they were incomplete or not submitted properly,” Kumar said and added that the other components of the training module would be finalised soon.

He said the training of trainers would be conducted towards the end of April and these trainers would be used for conducting training programmes in departments and districts after the panchayat elections are over in May this year. The duration of the training programme would be finalised soon.

Though the exact number of services and the time limit for delivering them would be known only after the notification of the rules for implementing the act, but sources in the state government said to begin with, service related to social security pensions, caste, residence and income certificates issued by block offices, scholarships, public distribution system, character verification by police, different types of licences issued by transport department, drug licence, post-mortem report are likely to be brought under the ambit of the act.

Training of the officials apart, the state government is also working out the details for equipping government offices with necessary resources so that they don’t face problems once the state implements right to service act.

“Feedback from government departments and districts are being taken on this front on regular basis and efforts are on to fill up the gaps for hassle-free implementati-on of the act,” said the source.