SHILLONG: Five bills including the Meghalaya Right to Public Services were tabled on the first day of the five-day Autumn session of the Meghalaya Assembly on Thursday.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma tabled the Meghalaya Right to Public Services in the House.
"The government intends to enact a law to provide for time bound delivery of the services to the citizens in the state of Meghalaya including liability of the government servant in case of default to deliver service to citizens," Sangma said.
The bill said every citizen shall have the right to obtain citizen related services in Meghalaya and every designated officer shall be duty bound to deliver services within the time period as notified.
It said designated officer on receipt of an application for service by any person, without prejudice to the provisions of any law for the time being in force, provide the service or reject the application within the time period.
However, any person who does not receive the required service within the stipulated time period or whose application is rejected may file an appeal to the Appellate Authority wthin 30 days.
The bill said where the designated officer does not comply with the direction given by the Appellate Authority, the person aggrieved by such non-compliance may file an application directly to the State Public Service Delivery Commission (SPSDC).
"The Commission may impose a lump sum penalty against the designated officer for failure to deliver or render services to which the applicant is entitled. Such lump sum penalty may extend up to Rs 5,000 at the first instance and up to Rs 20,000 for repeated instances which shall be recovered from the officer against whom the penalty has been imposed," it said.
The chief minister also tabled two other bills - The Meghalaya Settlement of Arrears (Under the State Taxation Acts) Bill, 2020, and The Meghalaya Minerals Cess (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
Education minister, Lahkmen Rymbui tabled The St.Xaviers University Shillong Bill, 2020 and the Meghalaya Farmers (Empowerment) Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was tabled by Agriculture minister Bah Banteidor Lyngdoh.