Revenue dept to provide paperless certificates

The Revenue department has simplified the process of obtaining government certificates by finally launching the paperless certificate facility.

Under this, all 25 certificates issued by the department through Atalji Janasnehi Kendras will be digitised. As a result, the applicant will not be required to submit paper certificates to obtain any government certificate. They will have to just submit the unique verification number/GSC number to the department concerned and obtain the certificate.

For instance, if a student has to submit caste/income certificate to the school for admission, he/she will have to go the school, and submit the unique verification number (printed on his/her original certificate), instead of the paper certificate.

Once the school has typed this number on the Nadakacheri website, www.nadakachari.karnataka.gov.in, all details pertaining to the income/caste certificate of the student will appear. The department or the user agency can also get the details of the certificate by sending an SMS: KA NK followed by the unique verification number, to 51969. The department will get a response both in Kannada and English outlining the entire details of the applicant.

Ten days ago, the Commissioner for Public Instruction issued a circular, mandating the officials not to demand hard copies of the caste or income certificates from the beneficiaries/students. The beneficiaries will only have to mention their certificate number for the application to be processed, the circular states. All government departments have been asked to follow this procedure henceforth. Ever since the facility has been launched, around 1,500 SMS requests have been received by the department for verification purpose.

Munish Moudgil, director, Atalji Janasnehi Kendras, said that currently, the 25 certificates of the Revenue department issued through Atalji Janasnehi Kendras are printed on secured stationary affixed with holograms and issued to citizens.

“However, a majority of the citizens have been harassed as they have been made to run around various government departments to obtain benefits. Under this system, the digitally approved certificates will not be printed, but the unique certificate number will be sent to the applicant/student through an SMS,” he said.  The verified certificate number is a sufficient proof of valid certificate and the traditional paper certificate will not be required, he added.

Moudgil said that the objective of the initiative was to do away with additional cost to the citizen, unnecessary paperwork, and to weed out fake certificates.

Through this, the department will save around Rs 12 crore annually, which is the printing cost of the certificates.

Though the government order was issued to this effect on February 19, 2014, the department could not implement it immediately, as it took over a year to bring all the government departments on board.

The department is working towards linking the database of paperless certificates to UID. Once this is done, the applicant will not even be required to go to Nadakacheris to get his application registered.

Beneficiaries can directly apply for any of the services under Nadakacheris online. The department is in the process of integrating the 4.5 crore-odd names under UID, with the database of certificates. The seeding process is said to be completed in a few weeks.  Munish Moudgil, Director, Atalji Janasnehi Kendras:  Currently, the 25 certificates of the Revenue department issued through Atalji Janasnehi Kendras are printed on secured stationary affixed with holograms and issued to citizens.