Doorstep delivery of 40 govt services likely by September

Home delivery of 40 government services — including applications for driving licences, marriage certificates, caste certificates and water connections — is likely to start in the first week of September, Delhi government officials said on Monday.

The Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had in July given its approval to the contract being awarded to VFS Global, the company to which many embassies and high commissions have outsourced visa applications to.

After the Cabinet meeting on July 3, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said that starting with 70 different services, to be followed by 30 more within a month of the launch, would be made available to applicants at their doorstep by around August-end.

24/7 call centre

Rakesh Bali, the Secretary of Delhi government’s Administrative Reforms Department, which is carrying out the project, said the doorstep delivery of 40 services could start by “first week of September”.

He added that the Department would run a 24/7 call centre through another contractor. Applicants would have to book a home visit by the “mobile sahayak” hired by VFS.

During the visit, the sahayak or helper would use a tablet computer to upload the documents needed for the application and collect any application fee required. After completion of the process, the applicant would have to pay ₹50 as a facilitation fee. The completed certificate would then be posted to the applicant’s address.

In order to monitor the functioning, Mr. Bali said a project management unit would be set up. A private company had been hired as a consultant for a period of a year. The mobile sahayaks would most likely operate from Monday to Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the call centre to make appointments would operate 24/7.

Police verification

To ensure safety of applicants, police verification of the mobile sahayaks would be done and they would not be given the phone numbers of the applicants they have to visit, he said.

The Department expected that about 60 mobile sahayaks would be hired to launch the project, following which it could go up to about 300.

The Cabinet had given in-principle approval to the project in November 2017. At that time, 40 services were to be included to start with. A total of 25 lakh applications had been made for these 40 services last year.