Lack of awareness keeping citizens away from service centres

Even though the civic body's citizen facilitation centre (CFCs) in all its 24 wards are now operational for 12 hours a day and for 355 days a year, not many are aware of it. As a result, the counters are mostly vacant in the late evenings as most people hurriedly finish off their work and head home to avail the services offered by the centres before dusk falls.

CFC is a single-window system to collect various payments, including property tax bills, water charges, shop and establishment licence fees and FSI premium payments. Birth and death certificates are also collected at the centres set up in each ward.

Complaints on any department or issue, including RTI queries, can be submitted at the CFCs. One can also apply for licences for pets, trade, health at the counters.

"The centres are open till 8pm, 355 days a year so that it is convenient for working people. But late evenings and on weekends, we see very few people," said an official from a ward.

Another senior civic official said he is aware of the problem. "We will be creating awareness on this at the ward level, so that more citizens can utilise the services."