Patna, Jan. 19: A suggestion from people about a “tatkal” facility for government services has found favour among bureaucrats giving final touches to the right to service bill. The senior officers, who met today to deliberate on the proposed legislation, have decided to let the government take a final call on it.

The proposal seemed outlandish to some but is gradually gaining currency among a section of bureaucrats as being a “practical idea”.

The suggestion for “tatkal” facility came from Bihar residents after they were requested to send in their ideas regarding the proposed law, which chief minister Nitish Kumar has promised to them to ensure work is done by government departments within a stipulated time. The “tatkal” proposal, along the lines of the scheme that exists for train tickets and passports, says if the people want, they can pay a premium over the normal fee charged for a given service to get the work done in less than the stipulated time.

The proposal was discussed at a meeting of the heads of around a dozen departments convened by chief secretary Anup Mukerji to give final touches to the bill before putting it up for the final approval of the government.

“Though the participants were not unanimous about incorporation of such a provision yet, it was decided that instead of rejecting the idea outright the decision should be left on the state government,” a senior IAS official who took part in the meeting told The Telegraph.

The people sent in their suggestions after the government put up the draft of the bill on its website and sought opinions. Around 70 suggestions were received.

People’s suggestions apart, today’s meeting also discussed the preparations needed to be made by different departments in order to meet the challenge of delivering services to people in a stipulated time once the legislation is enacted.

“The department heads were told that notice boards should be put on display in government offices to inform people about the documents they need to submit with the application in case they need to avail a particular service,” said the official.

He said this directive was issued so that people are not harassed. Often in the past, officials have rejected applications on flimsy grounds that a certain document was not submitted. The bill is likely to be introduced for approval in the budget session of the state legislature.

The draft bill covers almost all the services which general people avail frequently. It talks about 17 services that would be brought under the purview of the bill at the beginning.

The list includes services related to social security pension, scholarship applications of students, matters related to electricity board, postmortem reports, caste and residence certificate, income certificate, matters related to transport department, public distribution system, application for new ration cards, application for drug licence, different licences issued by the agriculture department, certificates issued by labour resources department, licence for running brick kiln, license issued for forest department for saw mills, police verification report and applications for giving holding number in the urban areas.

The draft bill also has a provision allowing the government to notify services which would be brought under the purview of the proposed act.

Details like the amount of fine to be imposed on officials who fail to deliver the service within the stipulated time, designation of officers who would be made responsible for delivering the services, details about the first and second appellate authorities and the amount of fine which would be imposed have also been incorporated in the draft bill.

It also says that the penalty imposed will be deducted from the salary of the designated officers and the first appeal office and their subordinate staff concerned in the proportion as decided by the department having jurisdiction relating the service.