Jaipur: In a first for India, Rajasthan government has prepared the draft of Rajasthan Social Accountability Bill and has invited suggestions from the general public. The draft was uploaded on the Rajasthan administrative reforms’ web portal on Monday and it is likely to be tabled in Vidhan Sabha in March. No other state in the country has ever introduced such a bill, say experts.Explaining the objectives, the draft says that bill is intended to seek the accountability of public functionaries and authorities for timely delivery of goods and services.“It aims to create democratic, decentralized and participative approach to enable wider public participation. Initiate monitoring of programmes and policies through community score cards, citizens report card and social audits,” reads the bill.The purview of bill includes any entity or body, which is under the control of the government, governor and the high court of Rajasthan. "Entity or the body set up by Central Government to function within the State of Rajasthan and partially or wholly providing public goods and services provided there is consent of the Central Government," reads the draft.The bill was considered an extension of the Right to Information Act by the experts. One of the key provisions hailed as ‘reformatory’ by experts is imposition of penalties and compensation and initiation of departmental action against the Grievance Redressal Officer (GRO) of the service delivery department for non-compliance. For example: If the local police have failed to deliver it duties, the onus is on the GRO.The draft bill doesn't have detailed information on several provisions (heads and sub-heads). Sources who were part of drafting the bill told TOI that if a citizen doesn't receive an entitlement as per the stipulated time frame the recipient is entitle to receive compensation. "The penalty or the compensation shall be recovered from the salary of the official against whom the penalty has been imposed," said a sourceSuchna Evam Rozgar Abhiyan has suggested that every social sector must programme should contribute 1% of their total budget for financing the implementation of the act."The accountability law is required to hold public servants and bureaucrats accountable for not performing or delivering their service. This law will compliment RTI which is becoming far more challenging. The citizen centric law will enable citizens to initiate enquiries rather than relying on the departmental enquires in the existing system," said Nikhil Dey of SR Abhiyan who along with Aruna Roy has been camping for the law since 2013. Both Dey and Roy held 100 day long ‘Jawabdehi Yatra’ in 2015 during across all 33 districts during the tenure of former CM Vasundhara Raje pressing for the actSources said that government is planning to merge Rajasthan Guaranteed Delivery of Public Services act and Right to Hearing act into the accountability act. “The draft bill has been reviewed by chief secretary who is keen to present before the model code of conduct comes into effect. If the bill is not tabled in March, it will be delayed post the Lok Sabha polls," said a government source.

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