The Indian Express 21.06.2013
No more queues, middlemen as 100 govt services to go online
The long queues outside government offices for drivers licenses, birth or death certificates and payment of bills may soon be a thing of the past as the UT Administration is set to make some 100 such services available online.
As a first step in this regard, two e-governance projects including the e-District and State Portal/State Service Delivery Gateway were approved by the UT Adviser K K Sharma in a meeting of State Apex Committee held on Thursday.
Conceptualised by the Department of Information Technology, the two projects will ensure that all associated departments have the necessary IT infrastructure to provide the electronic services to city residents. One can get hold of the e-Forms on the Internet, which are to be then submitted online on the state portal. From here, the applications will be transmitted to the respective departments. The officials would process them electronically.
After applicants receive an SMS from the corresponding department, they can then download the applied certificate, digitally signed by the authority of the concerned department. The public services in their electronic form would go live in a phased manner with the launch of some expected within this year.
The two projects will provide over 100 public services online to residents of Chandigarh in. The projects are budgeted at around Rs 12 crore and would be funded under the Centre's National e-Governance Plan. The projects were conceptualized earlier this year.
Officials stated that the two projects would improve the speed and quality of public service. People would be spared the hassle of standing in long queues for submission of certificates. The service would also ensure that middlemen are not involved with the process. The services pertain to all departments including education, police, RLA, Estate Office, Municipal Corporation, etc. Information regarding EWS seats, facility to deposit fees of schools and colleges, registration of domestic servants and police clearance certificates among other facilities would be available online.
