Come August, No More Queuing Up For Your Official Documents; 100 Services At Your Doorstep

Come August, you may not have to queue up at government offices for several key services, including driving licence and caste certificates.

This is because nearly 100 services will soon be delivered at your doorstep: the Delhi cabinet, chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Tuesday approved the Department of Administrative Reform¡¯s proposal to give the work to the successful bidder to execute the project.

¡°The cabinet has approved the proposal to award the work to the successful bidder (VFS Global Services),¡± deputy CM Manish Sisodia told reporters.

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The cabinet had earlier approved doorstep delivery of 40 services ¡ª now, another 30 have been added to the list. Thirty more services will be included within a month of the scheme¡¯s launch.

¡°The scheme is proposed to be rolled out within two months,¡± Sisodia said.

As per the plan, mobile sahayaks will be hired through the agency that would set up call centres. A person seeking to avail of a particular service will have to make a call and the customer care executive will jot down the basic details.

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The caller will be asked to keep all necessary documents at hand. The call centre will then alert the mobile sahayak located closest to the caller¡¯s address, who will fix a meeting at the applicant¡¯s convenience.

However, the applicant will have to visit the MLO office once to undergo a driving test in case of a driving licence.

Initially, there is likely to be around 300 police-verified mobile sahayaks. The numbers will grow with time. The sahayaks will verify and scan all documents and upload them to websites of the department concerned for processing.

Such verification will also make the chances of an application getting rejected negligible. The department will send an SMS to the mobile sahayak and to the applicant when the certificate is ready. The same mobile sahayak will deliver the printed certificate within a specified time.

For this, people will need to pay a small fee to the mobile sahayak through e-wallets or by cash.

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The scheme was delayed by nearly two months after LG Anil Baijal returned the file to the government for ¡°reconsideration¡±, adding to the tension between the state government and the Centre. The reasons cited by LG included ¡°implications on safety and security of women, breach of privacy, traffic congestion, scope for corruption and loss of documents, among others¡±.

Calling it a huge setback to its efforts to provide ¡°corruption-free¡± governance, the AAP government had questioned LG¡¯s reservations, including the one related to safety of women ¡°at a time when pizzas are delivered at doorstep¡±.

The scheme was finally cleared on January 15. Soon after, the government fast-tracked the project with a target to launch it in April-May.

Key certificates that will be made available at your doorstep: driving licence, transfer of ownership of vehicles, marriage registration, certificate of caste, old-age pension scheme, certificate of domicile, certificate of income, new water and sewer connection, certificate of birth, nationality certificate, surviving member certificate, identity cards for physically challenged persons, solvency certificate, children of freedom fighters certificate and certificate of non-encumbrance, among others.