The Lt Governor of Delhi, VK Saxena, asked the MCD to make all its services that require public interface to be IT-enabled and make it online by July 31.
Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has issued instructions to the MCD to make all its services that require public interface to be IT-enabled and make it online by July 31.
Reviewing the IT initiatives being undertaken by the MCD in a meeting on June 24, Lt Governor Saxena emphasised that all citizen-centric services like registration of birth and death, property tax, e-mutation, building plan sanction, layout approval, licenses, conversion and parking charges, advertisement and hoarding fees collection, cremation and burials and tracking of garbage vehicles etc that were hitherto being planned to be computerised in a piece-meal manner, be brought online on a common simply accessible platform and made fully IT-enabled.
Insisting that the aim should be to ensure minimal human interface in the delivery of its services, the L-G said that this will, while ensuring “effective and timely delivery”, and also cut red-tape, minimise inconvenience and harassment of common people and curtail inefficiency and corruption at all levels.
Appreciating the MCD for its efforts of fully computerising the registrations of birth and death, he asked for linkage of this data base to the government departments that provided services like food security, pensions, maternity benefits and other welfare schemes, so that automatic updation or deletion of names could happen upon birth or death.
Lt Governor Saxena said, “This will ensure plugging leakages and put a stop to instances of ‘ghost beneficiaries’.”
Upon being informed about the high figure of 26 per cent of births being registered to have happened at home and not in a hospital/nursing home, he instructed officials to randomly check a ward with the highest home births and find out the reasons behind it.
Directing officials to achieve full automation in property tax filing, collection, assessment and recovery, Saxena advised that all properties within the city limits commercial as well as residential are brought under the tax net so that MCD’s incomes increase and it is able to provide better services.
Expressing concern over the fact that properties, commercial establishments and people in as much as 65 per cent of the geographical area of Delhi did not pay any property tax, L-G Saxena said, “It was an unfortunate, unfair and unviable situation. Since the entire city and not only the 35 per cent residents of 11 lakh houses living in authorised/regularised colonies were availing the amenities and services offered by the municipal corporation, it would only be fair and justified that all pay property tax at differential rates as per their respective self-assessed financial status”. For this purpose, he instructed officials to simplify the forms for property tax registration and ensure its Aadhaar linkage.
In this regard, the L-G asked officials to take the people and RWAs on board and address their concerns. Such partnership with the people, he said, will not only facilitate honest self assessment on part of assesses but also increase tax collection and transparency and ensure better services to the people.
The L-G underlined that MCD had to undertake all efforts to enhance its revenue receipts and reiterated that the goal was to turn the municipal corporation’s finances, which were currently in the red, to a robust green.
