No awareness, people unable to avail 116 services

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 7

People in the state are not availing 116 services as notified under the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Guarantee (HPPSG) Act in 2011 to provide good governance to people. The Health Department is mandated to provide 12 services but most hospitals have not put the service chart.

All government hospitals have to give emergency testing reports in two hours or by 3 pm the same day, but these services remain on paper only. Emergency calls from peripheral institutions should be attended in an hour while from local institutions in 15 minutes and the fitness certificate be issued the same day, says the Act, a copy of which is with The Tribune. Twenty departments provide 116 services under this Act.

The patients in the IGMC, Kamla Nehru and Ripon hospitals stand in long queues in the OPDs each morning because the hospital administration fails to provide them OPD slips in 30 minutes.

Similarly, the Urban Department has notified 12 services and the Town and Country Planning Department seven.

The story in villages is even more distressing. The villagers are not getting six services to be given in 24 hours by the Panchayati Raj Department. “We have run after patwaris for getting birth, death or marriage certificate or ration card,” they said.

The government had issued a notification on November 21, 2011, to implement the Act. But it took five years to enforce these while many departments have not designated the first and second appellate authorities which are mandatory to redress the grievances of applicants.

The people have to run after patwaris for the copies of revenue records, reports of damages due to natural calamities or entry of mutations in most districts and they do not get the compensation to wildlife attacks on human and crops, revealed a cursory survey.

Reason: Most of the patwar circles are without patwaris or more than 50 per cent of posts are vacant.

Director, Women Studies, and chairperson, Department of Public Administration, HPU, Prof Mamta Mokta said she observed in a cursory survey that people were not aware about the services they were entitled to get under the Act.