The State government’s decision to switch to soft copies of income and caste certificates instead of printed copies, promises to be a game changer.
Under the paperless certificate system, all the 25 certificates issued by the Revenue Department through the Atalji Janasnehi Kendras will be digitised.
From now, students who apply for caste, income, residence, or legal heir certificates will not get printed copies.
They will only get the unique certificate number attached to each document.
They will have to mention this number on the applications they give to schools or government departments for admissions or jobs. The user agencies — schools or government departments — that extend benefits such as reservation or fee waiver to students will cross-check this number with the government database to make sure of the identity of the applicant and the veracity of their caste group or income levels.
This will ensure that beneficiaries do not have to run from one department to another.
Free from extra costs
It will free them from additional costs, while it will save the authorities a lot of paper work, Munish Moudgil, Atalji Janasnehi Kendra Project Director, told The Hindu .
A circular issued on May 22 says the system comes into force immediately.
“All the data about the 25 certificate categories is in our servers. It can be accessed at ww.nadakacheri.karnataka.gov.in,” Mr. Moudgil said. He said the process of applying for certificates had been made simple and easy. All that a student or an applicant had to do is send an SMS to 51969.
He/she will get details of the certificates with a unique certificate number (UCN).
This number would be sufficient proof of a valid certificate and there was no need for attaching the hard copy of the certificate, he said.
The Commissioner of Public Instruction has issued a circular that henceforth all applicants need to mention only the unique certificate number and the department would process the applications, Mr. Moudgil added.