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Soon, the state government will deliver its services at citizens’ doorsteps, including caste certificates, income certificates, senior citizen cards and health cards.
This follows the Delhi model which aims to extend government services beyond counters at the citizens’ homes through ‘Mobile Sahayaks’.
The Karnataka government’s Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services (EDCS) will implement “door delivery of government services” under the Seva Sindhu project which is a state government initiative that aims to provide hassle-free government services to citizens.
Based on the success of the pilot project, the government will offer 100 services, including driver’s licence, death and birth certificates.
Sunil Panwar, director of EDCS, told DH, “No citizen would have to stand in queues for the services. They can avail the services listed under the scheme with no hassles at their doorstep by just dialling the call centre.”
“We had conducted a study of a similar project implemented in Delhi last year and proposed the project in the state. The e-governance ecosystem in Karnataka is quite evolved, and hence, it is technically possible to launch this scheme with minor changes in the system. An enhanced service delivery model like this would help Karnataka achieve citizen-centric governance,” he added.
In order to understand the feasibility of this scheme and to gauge the response of citizens, a pilot has been conducted in Mahalakshmi Layout in north-west Bengaluru from Monday.
“This area has seven wards and is spread across 147 hectares. It will be covered by 17 Sahayaks in two shifts, providing service from 7 am to 8 pm. The citizens can call Sakala call centre and book an appointment for any of the five services. The ‘Mobile Sahayaks’ will be mapped to the location of the home and collect the necessary documents,” said Varaprasad Reddy, project director of Seva Sindhu.
“A flat service fee of Rs 110 will be charged by the Sahayaks for each successful application submission,” explained Reddy.
After the successful completion of the pilot project, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy will launch the project across the state soon. Around 100 services will be provided under this project.