Delhi government has streamlined 450 services, documents of around 30 departments: Officials

New Delhi: In a major governance reform, the Delhi government has streamlined 450 services and documents of around 30 departments to give a boost to ease of living and doing business in the national capital, officials said on Friday.

Under the exercise started earlier this year, 596 government-to-business and government-to-citizen interfaces were identified for simplification, rationalisation and digitisation to reduce time and cost and thus, improve ease of living and ease of doing business, they said.

“Of these 596 services and paperwork, 450 were streamlined through simplification and digitisation by August 15,” said Vivek Pandey, Managing Director of DSIIDC and the nodal officer for the project.

Nearly 210 of these regulatory compliances were directly related to citizen services such as property mutation, birth certificates, various transport department services, school registration, trade licences, among others, he added.

Of the remaining 123 compliances, 110 were related to the labour department. Ninety-five of these compliances were to be included in the new Labour Code and the rest of the 28 compliances of different departments were under various stages of being rationalised, the officials said.

“This is an ongoing process and more and more services and official paperwork will be scrutinised to be streamlined for the people and businesses. For example, we are working on a self-certified tree-felling permission system that is a very tedious process now,” said another officer.

Working on a faceless concept, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the city has brought 33 services, including learners’ licence, on an online platform and started home delivery of documents, weeding out the need for a person to visit any office.

Most of the services simplified and rationalised so far belong to the civic bodies in the city, including 72 of the New Delhi Municipal Council, 155 of the three municipal corporations, 24 of the transport department, 22 of the labour department, 17 of the Pollution Control Board, 16 of the Jal Board and nine of the revenue department.

The officials said the exercise involved studying every government-to-business and government-to-citizen interface to rationalise it or eliminate altogether if it has become archaic.

In case of the trade licences issued by the civic bodies, those needed to be renewed every year, entailing a burden on businesses. Now, the renewal period has been enhanced to three years. For shooting a film in the city, permission is needed from over a dozen departments, which is being streamlined now into a single-window system, the officials said.

In his Independence Day address on August 15, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal promised Delhiites that various services of his government would be brought to their homes, on the line of the faceless services of the transport department.

Over the last six-seven years, Delhi has become a laboratory of governance undertaking different types of experiments and tests in various fields, he had said.

“We have started this with the transport department and gradually, the entire Delhi government will be, in a way, sent to your home,” Kejriwal had said, referring to services that can be applied for online and delivered at the doorstep of people.

Currently, over 150 services of different departments are covered under the city government’s doorstep delivery of services scheme.