The Indian Express              13.08.2013

BMC to outsource CFC services to private agencies

The BMC, through the CFCs spread across the city, collects
various payments including property tax bills, water charges, shop and
establishment licence payments and FSI premium payments. Birth and death
cerificates are also collected at the CFCs set up in each ward.
Complaints on any department or issue, including RTI queries regarding
wards, are submitted at the CFCs. One can also apply for different types
of licences for pets, trade, health at the CFCs.

Initially, the civic administration had claimed that setting up
of CFCs would minimise inconvenience for citizens. However, long queues,
inefficient collecting systems and limited timings of the CFCs failed
to make them convenient for citizens.

“When there are tax deadlines or licence renewal deadlines
approaching, there is a long queue at the citizen facilitation centre.
The waiting time stretches to 1-1.5 hours. Instead of keeping the
counters open for 12 hours at a stretch, the work timings should be
split. Working individuals have time either before reporting to work or
after their work,” said Prashant Sakpale, Assistant Municipal
Commissioner of H-West ward (Bandra). Currently, the CFC in Bandra west
is open from 9 am to 4 pm, he added.

The new centres which will be outsourced to private companies
will be set up in the ward offices. However, they will be independently
handled by the companies.

The companies running the CFCs will be paid at a rate fixed per
transaction. In order to make it convenient for citizens to pay their
bills at flexible timings, the centres are scheduled to remain open from
9 am to 8 pm.

Currently, CFCs are operational depending on the availability of staff with the timings varying from one ward to the other.

According to information obtained under the RTI by activist Anil
Galgali, from 2005 to 2013, 24 CFCs across Mumbai were open from 9 am to
4 pm.