This Diwali, the Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department (TSDRFSD) has gone totally online not only issuing in No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for buildings like provisional, occupancy, renewals, etc., but also for giving licenses for sale of fire crackers, including temporary shops, wholesale shops and godowns.
Even permissions for provision of a fire truck as a standby measure during important events where large number of people gather or for just de-watering purposes can be obtained online without the need to run around the fire services officials concerned or file several applications and letters.
Online payment
“Online services are now available. Earlier, applicants had to go to the concerned Treasury offices, pay challans and physically submit it along with a letter. Now, the requisite fee can be paid online where you will also be told about the vehicle availability when a requisition is made,” says Ranga Reddy Division – District Fire Officer B. Harnatha Reddy, who also covers Medchal and Vikarabad districts.
Temporary licenses for retail sale of fire crackers that is usually given for about 14 days are being issued “within hours” with the permit being sent to the applicant’s inbox or to be downloaded from the official website. Close to 2000 such licenses were issued throughout the State with about 900 in capital region.
Ease of business
Although online services were taken up as part of the Government’s initiative on the Ease of Doing Business (EODB), the Fire Services Department has decided to go beyond the requirement and bring more services under the digital domain to make it more convenient to the public, explains Director General Rajiv Ratan.
For instance, getting the ‘Fire Attendance Certificate’, which is a mandatory document for making any insurance claim or for other transactions, used to be quite a cumbersome process earlier.
Speedy disposal
“We are going to issue it in 24 hours flat whereas there have been instances when it used to take up to two months,” says Mr. Reddy, a techie turned public servant.
Now, he is making good use of his technical skills for not only taking the department services online with the help of Centre for Good Governance (CGG) but is also redoing the fire services website so that it could become “device neutral” accessible from a mobile, I-pad or a laptop without the necessity of having to scroll down. Soon, the human resource management system and e-office too are to be streamlined.
