Soon, get birth certificate or shop license at the click of a button

Want to apply for a birth or marriage certificate, income certificate, shop licenses and their renewal or domestic and industrial water connections? You may be able to apply for these services and get their delivery online in a time-bound manner under the Right to Services Act, as the state government plans to launch coverage of 43 services offered by various departments on October 2.

Citizens will be able to access these services through the state's 'Aaple Sarkar' portal and by March 2016, almost all services notified under the Act by the end of this calendar year may be available online.

Some of the departments whose services will be covered include the revenue department (certificates of age, nationality and domicile, income, permissions for cultural programs), rural development department (certificates of birth, death, marriage, residence, BPL), water resources (permissions for domestic and industrial water use) and labour (registration under the Mumbai Shops and Establishments Act, 1948, renewal of registration).

The move will do away with the need for people to visit government offices or citizen service centres for various certificates and services. While some departments had also begun the process of making services available online, the new initiative will integrate this and make it available on one platform: Aaple Sarkar portal. In case the presence of the applicant is mandatory, he or she will be asked to come to the government office just once.

"Earlier, around 14 services were available online end-to-end under the e-district program. However, bringing these services under the right to services act for online delivery will mean that citizens have to get them in a set time-frame, failing which the errant officers will be fined," said a state government official.

"Aaple Sarkar will be the front-end, citizens' interface. The back-end and the processing will consist of the portal developed by MahaOnline and the respective departments," said an official from the chief minister's office, adding that planning was underway to launch this service on October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti).

Vijay Kumar Gautam, principal secretary, Information Technology, said after covering 43 services in this first phase, they have planned to take up the number to 100 by December. By March 2016, the department plans to bring all services notified by various departments by December-end on this platform.

The Maharashtra Right to Public Services Act, 2015, approved by the state government seeks to provide for the delivery of transparent, efficient and timely public services to eligible people in Maharashtra to ensure good governance.

While imposing penalties and disciplinary action on errant officers who fail to deliver public services, it also provides for cash incentives to officers who deliver these service within the stipulated time limit. Various departments have notified around 200 services so far.

DEPARTMENTS & SERVICES
Revenue department: Certificates of age, nationality and domicile, income, temporary residence, senior citizen, permissions for cultural programs, attestation of affidavits.

Rural development department: Certificates of birth, death, marriage, residence, BPL, life certificates.

Water resources: Permissions for domestic and industrial water use.

Labour department: Registration under the Mumbai Shops and Establishments Act, 1948, renewal of registration, permissions and their renewal for contractors under the Contract Workers (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970.

Forests department: Approval for compensation in lieu of damage by wild animals to crops, approvals for compensation to victims of attacks by wild animals, photography permissions in forest areas during the tourist season.