Law to provide services within stipulated time in Bihar soon

Law to provide services within stipulated time in Bihar soon

In a bold move to weed out corruption, the Bihar govt will soon enact a law, making it mandatory for state agencies to extend services to people within a stipulated time frame, CM Nitish Kumar said.

"We will soon bring the Right to Service Bill so that the government and its agencies extend services to people within a stipulated time frame," Kumar told reporters in Patna on Tuesday.

He said the proposed legislation would come in handy in weeding out red-tape and corruption.

In this regard, Kumar said people suffered a lot in obtaining income certificates, depositing bills and other services related to transport department.

"The new legislation will fix accountability and responsibility of officials for reaching the services required by the people," he said.

"It is the right of the people to avail services to be provided by the state government and its agencies and lapses on the part of officials in discharge of their obligations will amount to violation of proposed act," Kumar said.

Referring to his election promise that the state government would ensure confiscation of property of corrupt public servants and run schools there, he said applications were being filed by the prosecution agency in this connection.

Kumar said a Common Minimum Programme for governance would be evolved for the next five years after the winter session of the state legislature that will end on 9^th December.

The Chief Minister said he would resume his popular 'Janata Ke Darbar men Mukhyamantri' programme to get a first-hand account of problems facing the common man.

He also pledged to implement all the promises he made during his election campaign in accordance with his party's manifesto.

211 newly elected MLAs take oath in Bihar Assembly

Altogether 211 of 243 newly elected legislators, including most of the ministers, took oath in the Bihar Assembly on Tuesday.

Pro-tem Speaker Sadanand Singh administered the oath to the MLAs. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi were also present on the occasion.

Prominent among those who took oath include, state Water Resources Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Energy Minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav, Health Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minority Welfare Minister Sahid Ali Khan, PHED Minister Chandra Mohan Rai and Urban Development Minister Prem Kumar.

BJP minister Ramadhar Singh will take oath on Wednesday.

RJD Legislature Party leader and state party president Abdul Bari Siddiqui, being tipped for the post of the leader of the opposition in the house, also took oath.

Thirty-one MLAs are likely to take oath on Wednesday.

The oath-taking programme would continue till Wednesday and the election to the post of Speaker would take place a day after.

Governor Devanand Konwar would address the joint session of the two Houses of the state legislature on 3^rd December.

Later, talking to reporters, Chief Minister Kumar said he would take into confidence the leaders from Opposition on all important issues.

To a question, Kumar said though it would be the Speaker's domain to give recognition to the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, but our approach to this regard will be elastic and positive.