Implementation of Right to Service: A Study of SAS (Sahibzada Ajit Singh) Nagar District, Punjab
| Published date | 01 March 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561231204780 |
| Author | Harmanpreet Singh |
| Date | 01 March 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Implementation of
Right to Service: A
Study of SAS
(Sahibzada Ajit Singh)
Nagar District, Punjab
Harmanpreet Singh1
Abstract
This article is based on an empirical study and deals with the service users of
Sewa Kendras and Saanjh Kendras in the SAS Nagar district of the Punjab state.
The article relates to the viewpoints of the service users of Sewa and Saanjh
Kendras to assess the perceptions of service users regarding the implementation
of the Punjab Right to Service Act, 2011, in the SAS Nagar district. By perception,
it tries to figure out the awareness and satisfaction levels of service users regard-
ing the delivery of services at these Kendras working under the Punjab Right to
Service Act, 2011. In order to form an estimate of the perception of the service
users, an interview schedule was administered to a randomly selected sample of
300 citizens, who were receiving services at Sewa and Saanjh Kendras of all the
Tehsils of the SAS Nagar district.
Keywords
Right to Service, public service delivery, Sewa Kendra, Saanjh Kendra
Introduction
The Right to Service is a growing concept. It is committed to provide security in
the matter of public services and protects the interests of the citizens by specifying
the public service performance standards. A good development strategy of the
government always requires an efcient and timely delivery of public services to
citizens in order to ensure good governance in the society. ‘Right to Public Service
Delivery is a mechanism of the most crucial signicance in the entire range of
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
70(1) 108–123, 2024
© 2023 IIPA
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/00195561231204780
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1 Department of Public Administration, Government Mohindra College, Patiala, Punjab, India
Corresponding author:
Harmanpreet Singh, Department of Public Administration, Government Mohindra College, Patiala,
Punjab 147001, India.
E-mail: harmansingh.hs938@gmail.com
Singh 109
issues related to governance in a nation. Public service delivery affects the lives
of almost every citizen of a country, directly or indirectly. It also affects the entire
life-cycle of a citizen right from the birth to death’ (Jain & Jain, 2011).
Right to Service represents the commitment of a particular state towards stand-
ard, transparency, accountability, quality and timeframe of service delivery and
grievance redressal mechanism. The Right to Service is an authentic platform for
providing clear, precise and enforceable laws in the form of Public Service
Guarantee. It is aimed at ensuring time-bound delivery of public services to the
citizens by providing them with necessary arrangements. It enables the service
seekers to avail the services from the government departments with minimum
inconvenience and maximum speed.
‘Right to Service’ is dened under Section 2(g) of the Punjab Right to Service
Act, 2011, as ‘a right to obtain service within the given time limit’. Section 3(1) of
this Act states that ‘the State Government may, by notication from time to time,
notify the services, to which this Act shall apply’ (Government of Punjab, 2011).
It means ‘Right to Service’ is some of the commonly provided public services,
including issuance of caste, birth, marriage and domicile certicates, electricity
connections, voters’ cards, ration cards, copies of land records and so on, within
xed timeframes. The public services which are granted as rights are generally
notied from time to time through Gazette notications.
Research Methodology
The interview schedule method has been applied to collect primary data of the
SAS Nagar district. Sewa Kendras and Saanjh Kendras (service delivery centres)
have been selected to collect the primary data of the study because Sewa and
Saanjh Kendras are the main service providers under the Punjab Right to Service
Act, 2011. In order to form an estimate of the perception of the service users, an
interview schedule was administered to a randomly selected sample of 300 citi-
zens who were receiving services at Sewa and Saanjh Kendras of all the Tehsils
of the SAS Nagar district. Detailed schedules comprising both close-ended and
open-ended questions were prepared, keeping the objectives of research in mind.
The collected data have been edited and tabulated through simple statistical tech-
niques. The data are also presented by pie charts.
A sample of 300 service users from various sections of the society have been
selected from the SAS Nagar district. Therefore, 240 service users (80 from each
Tehsil) have been chosen randomly from the Sewa Kendra and 60 service users
(20 from each Tehsil) have been chosen randomly from Saanjh Kendra to collect
the relevant data. The sample of Saanjh Kendra is one-fourth of the population of
the Sewa Kendra giving a right proportion of the members because Saanjh Kendra
was one-fourth of Sewa Kendra in the SAS Nagar district, that is, eighty Sewa
Kendra and twenty Saanjh Kendra. The study has been conducted in both rural
and urban areas.
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