Rollout of this potential citizen-friendly measure expected early next year
Tired of standing in long queues outside Delhi government offices to submit documents for your driver’s licence or a new water connection? Annoyed about dealing with pestering touts demanding a slice of your hard-earned money or rushing to the nearest cyber café to submit documents?
The Delhi government has a potential solution to your problems. By early next year, the Delhi government is expected to offer its citizens 40 public services at their doorstep. These services will range from marriage registration, caste, income and domicile certificates to driver licences, water connections, pension schemes, and permanent IDs for the disabled, among others.
Citizens can stay at home, while a “mobile sahayak” (mobile assistant) is assigned to do the necessary legwork for a “pre-fixed facilitation fee” which as per reports is expected to be “nominal”.
“Mobile sahayaks will be hired through the agency that will set up call centres,” said Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, reports ToI. “Various certificates, such as for caste, new water connections, income, driving licenses, ration cards, domicile, marriage registration, duplicate RC and change of address in RC, will be covered under the scheme in the first phase.”
Every mobile sahayak will carry all the necessary equipment such as biometric devices and a camera for documentation purposes. In the second phase, 30-35 more services would be added to the scheme every consecutive 30 days from the day of the roll-out, till all services are covered, reported the Press Trust of India.
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For these 40 services on offer in the first phase, government figures state that nearly 25 lakh transactions take place every year. For every such transaction, the citizen has to make on an average four visits to the concerned offices.
The Delhi government’s scheme seeks to streamline this process for the average citizen. A visit to the concerned department office will be required only in the event of verification or to answer questions that necessitate the applicant’s presence.
News reports suggest that facilitating this entire exercise for three years would cost the Delhi government Rs 8 crore.
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