In a major citizen-friendly initiative, the UT Administration on Thursday introduced delivery of 16 new citizen centric services though the Sampark Centres in the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
The initiative covers key services of the SDM office, Deputy Commissioner office, Election Department and Municipal Corporation.
From now onwards, the residents would no longer be required to go to either SDM office or DC office for obtaining caste certificate, income certificate, character or residence certificates, as the same can be obtained through Sampark Centres by paying facilitation charges. The residents would also be able to apply for passports through selected Sampark Centres.
Also, the residents would now be able to book community centres and grounds of the MCC through Sampark Centres in a convenient way.
The timelines for each service have been also fixed for timely delivery of the services and status report would be shared with the concerned departments to ensure that there is no pendency.
The citizens will be continuously kept informed about their application status through SMS. Also, when the certificate is ready for delivery, the resident will receive an SMS intimating him/her to come and collect the certificate. In case a certificate is not ready by the due date of delivery, the applicant will be informed accordingly.
The introduction of 16 new services is seen as one of the major initiatives taken under Sampark project since its inception in 2004
This initiative of UT Department of Information Technology will obviate the need for visiting offices for availing service, getting information and inquiring about status of their application. This will also help in reducing the response time of the concerned departments and increase accountability and transparency in service delivery.
KK Sharma, Adviser to the UT Administrator on Thursday formally launched the initiative at eSampark centre of Sector 21, to bring a large bouquet of services closer to the doorstep of residents.
Speaking on the occasion, KK Sharma said, “This is major step and the UT Administration would continue to strive towards making Chandigarh a citizen friendly city.”
Adding to this, Mohammad Shayin, UT Deputy Commissioner said, “It is a noble initiative and services can now be availed during out office hours and on Saturdays without the need of visiting a government office. At the office level we have worked on reducing the timelines for prompt citizen service delivery.” He said that the due trainings have been conducted of the Sampark staff to ensure that applications are received in totality and citizens are duly assisted in filling up of application form.
UT Secretary, Information Technology, Prerna Puri informed that this new paradigm has focused on the use of IT to bring public services to the doorsteps of the citizens. Sampark Centres facilitate better service delivery to the citizens in terms of timelines and quality, thus making governance more efficient and effective”.
She said that in due course of time more services will be added. As a new initiative, to serve the residents of the locality, the services of railway ticket booking through IRCTC have been started in Sampark of Sector 21 from today, making it the second Sampark Centre after the Sampark Centre of Sector 7 to have Railway booking services.
Notably, Chandigarh has a network of Sampark Centres with over 38 such centres spread across the union territory which includes Gram Sampark Centres and Sampark Kiosks also. More than 25 G2C and B2C services are already being delivered through the Sampark Centres. Recently collection of College fees had also been initiated through these centres.