The state government has begun a process to simplify and standardise various application forms and rationalise the number of annexures to be submitted with them. The state has also introduced user-friendly input forms and has laid down a common list of documents to be submitted with the application.
Certificates issued by various government departments have also been beautified and will be issued with digital signatures.
Officials from the state information technology (IT) department, which led the exercise as part of the eDistrict service, said that 26 of the 67 government to citizens (G2C) services, clearances and certificates had been covered so far in this project. The project has covered domicile, senior citizens, residence, income, solvency, heirship, performance licenses, quarry leases and various caste certificates.
Rajesh Aggarwal, principal secretary of the state IT department, told dna that they had reduced the number of pages and fields to be filled up in the forms and were seeking only necessary information. The number of annexures has also been curtailed and involving fewer steps in the approval processes. People will also be able to pay fees for these certificates through cash or net banking instead of just bank challan and receive digitally signed certificates.
"We are also doing away with the affidavits required to be filed by citizens. We trust that the citizen is not lying," said Aggarwal, adding that this would be done for most services except some like caste certificates. Maharashtra would be the second state to do this after Punjab.
"Earlier, there was no single standard input form available in all talukas, with each taluka choosing to have their own version of input forms. The details sought in these input forms and the documents required to be submitted also varied from one taluka to another," said an official, adding that some of the information sought was also "unnecessary."
These input forms were not user-friendly and had insufficient amount of space for users to enter the data. At times, these forms were tough for both, the applicants and the village level entrepreneurs (VLEs), who collected and processed them, to read and understand. Now, the application forms can also be downloaded from the internet.
The official added that they had introduced standardisation of input forms and supporting documents and proofs required to be submitted across all 35 districts in the state. "We have used language which could be understood by people," he said, adding that the output certificates had also been given a bar code and a state government logo on top to give them a pleasant and identical look. These certificates can also be verified using the bar code number.
"Now, the main focus is getting all 67 services live," said the official. He added that they were also planning a common software across all SETU centres (citizens facilitation centres) in Maharashtra to do away with mismatch and ambiguity. All services will have to be done via one channel i.e the state's Mahaonline portal.
Some certificates covered
Domicile, residence, senior citizens, alpabhudharak, general affidavit, quarry lease, quarry license, stone crusher, 7/12 extract, various caste certificates, non-creamy layer certificates, heirship certificates, solvency certificates and performance licenses.
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