After introducing birth and death certificates issuance through
MeeSeva citizen’s services centres, the state government’s decision to
offer six more services falling under Greater Hyderabad Municipal
Corporation (GHMC) purview, through these centres has caused serious
heartburn among the corporators of all political parties of GHMC.
The
six services are: new assessment applications for property tax, title
transfer or mutation of property tax, new applications for trade
licenses, renewal trade licenses, no dues certificate for property tax
and exemption of property tax copies, etc.
The integration of
these services with MeeSeva is nearing completion and once the data is
uploaded on their server, these services would be offered to the
citizens at a price fixed by government.
GHMC officials told
Express that the corporation is just following the instructions of the
state government. Though there is stiff opposition from the political
parties in GHMC, the corporation is helpless in this regard, officials
added.
The corporators worry was that if the services of GHMC are
provided by MeeSeva, the Citizen Service Centres (CSCs) established to
provide all the GHMC services in all the 18 Circles would become useless
and in the long run they could become sick and be closed down.
The
other issue raised by the corporators was that Mee Seva centres were
charging exorbitant amounts for issuing certificates unlike GHMC which
charged nominal fee.
TDP floor leader Singireddy Srinivas Reddy
said to get a birth or death certificate from a CSC, citizen paid `20
per copy whereas, Mee Seva centres charge `45 for the same. Meeseva
functioned only for commercial gains.
Singireddy also said that
the day-to-day transactions in CSCs would drastically fall and
generation of income to GHMC would come down. As a result, the civic
body would face difficulties in generating funds for the future
developmental works.
The General Body has already passed a
unanimous resolution that certificates relating to GHMC should be issued
only at CSCs, Singireddy said.
