PRATIK PARAB
The absence of a full-time Salcete Mamlatdar is taking a toll on the functioning of the Mamlatdar offices of Salcete, especially that of Margao and Fatorda. It has been over four months since the Salcete Mamlatdar office has been waiting for a full-fledged officer to take up necessary decisions for the revenue areas. The absence of healthy infrastructure for the timely delivery of services has also become a hindrance for the functioning of the offices of Mamlatdars and Talathis.
The TCP Minister, Vijai Sardesai, successfully brought in a full time Chief Officer to the MMC within three days of announcement and has been requested by the people to intervene and get a full time Mamlatdar for Salcete soon.
The Salcete Mamlatdar office and the offices of Margao and Fatorda Talathi are longing for help. There are over 150 various applications being received by the offices for various certificates like the caste, residential and others and it is getting very difficult to fulfill the promise of Right to Service.
The dream of one day certificates delivery is far from being achieved due to the staff crunch and basic infra in place.
The Revenue Minister, Rohan Khaunte, some months back had visited the District Collector’s office to review the systems in place. This was planned for keeping in mind the Right Service to Service Guarantee Act. The Minister had then promised with a deadline to give certificates like Residential and Caste certificates in a single day and also promised of some services within a day.
However, the condition is opposite on ground at Margao. The Mamlatdar office issues a range of certificates against the applications of the people. These certificates include form I & XIV, Residence Certificates, Divergence Certificates and also income certificates. The Salcete Mamlatdar has been promoted six months ago and ever since the chair has been vacant. The entire work has been diverted to the offices of the Joint Mamlatdars who have already been sitting with the works of their jurisdiction panchayats. To add to the work the Margao and Fatorda Talathi offices have to forward all the applications to the same mamlatdars. These applications are in 100’s and 200’s within a day which the Mamlatdar in-charge has to e-sign approve and forward to the Talathi. This is causing a lot of delay in the services to people.
As far as the Talathis are concerned the Margao and Fatorda Talathi alone receive over 100 applications every single day. In the new system the Talathis have become the officials who do the entire work from receiving the applications, writing reports, on each and every application, then scanning these 50 to 60 applications to be fed into the system for approval, then printing and delivering the certificate applied for. All this happens amidst a rush of several people around the table with 100’s of questions to be answered.
As far as the systems are concerned not too long ago the Internet service to the offices of Margao and Fatorda talathi had disconnected due to which there was a big delay on processing of various applications received. Finally the office had to be hitched to another neighbouring office with a long cable for Internet connectivity. These and many more problems plague the offices which are hindrances for the Right To Service Guarantee Act.
As far as the staff requirement is concerned the offices of the Mamlatdars and Talathis are in a need of additional hands to do the works of data entry.
The Collector of South Goa was engrossed in her meetings till late evening hence could not be contacted.
When contacted the Joint Mamlatdar I Manoj Korgaonkar said: “We receive at least 100 to 120 average applications on our software which we have to approve every day. These applications come from all over Salcete and need to be E-signed a forwarded to the Talathi for issuance,” said Manoj.
However, it is also been informed from reliable sources that some of the offices of Talathis in Villages do not even have printers and the Talathi is forced to come to Margao, print the certificates and deliver them to the people.
A highly placed official in the Administration informed that promoted Salcete Mamlatdar Vishal Kundaikar already has three charges to handle and has not been able to give time for the Salcete applications.
When asked Minister Vijai Sardesai said, “There is indeed a need for full-time Mamlatdar for Salcete. I expect the post to be filled soon. I will follow up on the demand of the people,” said Vijai Sardesai.
