L-G okays ‘doorstep delivery’ scheme

New Delhi: After a long-drawn standoff with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal on Monday approved the “doorstep delivery of public services”, which offers over 40 government services ranging from grant of water connection to marriage certificate at people’s doorstep. The scheme had become another point of contention between the AAP-led Delhi government and the L-G.

In November 2017, the Delhi government announced that 40 public services such as driving licences, caste certificates and water connections would soon be home-delivered, with officials going to people’s homes to complete paperwork and collect payment.

However, later in December, Mr Baijal sent the file back to the government for reconsideration.

The L-G office said the plan left room for safety concerns for women, corruption, bad behaviour and breach of privacy. The Kejriwal government responded to the rejection, calling it a “huge setback” to its “efforts to provide good and corruption-free governance”.

On Monday, a statement from Mr Baijal’s office said the government’s plan was approved after Kejriwal promised to “simultaneously work to plug the gaps in the digital delivery of services from the ‘application’ to the ‘delivery’ stage”

“Chief minister assures lieutenant-governor that the government will simultaneously work to strengthen the system for ‘online’ delivery of services. Both systems of providing services to the public, by ‘mobile sahayaks’ and through ‘internet kiosks,’ will be complementary to each other,” an official statement said.

The deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia, had earlier said that citizens would save time and countless trips to government offices with the scheme and termed the decision as one amounting to bringing the “government to your doorsteps” and the “home delivery of governance.” The citizens would be able to access these services outside of the normal working hours too.

Mr Kejriwal thanked the lieutenant governor for approving the plan. “All citizens of Delhi are grateful to you sir. Thank you,” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Monday.

The 40 services on offer include issuance of OBC, SC and ST certificates; motor vehicle registration certificate; driving licence; handicapped and old age pensions; and sewage connection as well as. A nominal fee would be charged from people and a private agency would be hired to carry out the service.

The AAP government has termed the service the first of its kind in India.

Under the new project, if a person wants a certificate from the government, he would telephone one of the call centres. Subsequently, a mobile sahayak would go to the residence or office of the applicant and collect the necessary documents, get the photo and biometric details, and process the application. Applicants can pay the prescribed application fee to the mobile sahayak.