Team Herald
PANJIM: The Revenue Department has begun implementing the Time Bound Delivery of Services Act to ensure discipline in offices and time-bound services to the common man.
Speaking to media persons on Friday, Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte assured to streamline the system within a month and emphasised on a no-nonsense policy and zero-tolerance to corruption.
“The Act’s implementation has begun to ensure discipline and punctuality among government employees, officials. If found in violation, they will be held accountable and face action as per the rules and regulations laid down in the Act,” he said.
The department is chalking out plans to ease the problems of the common man in connection with availing related services, solving issues and ensuring better networking. Khaunte also proposed rebranding of all offices.
“A public grievance box will be installed at all taluka level offices. The letters will be opened at the respective Collectors’ offices every fortnight to take appropriate steps based on the complaints, views, etc. We have adopted zero-tolerance to corruption and no-nonsense policy, for which every office will now have CCTV cameras which will be monitored from the office of the District Collectors. This will reduce serious allegations of corruption and lethargy in completing the work,” he said. A poster reading ‘bribery is an offence’ will be pinned at every taluka office and both districts collectorates.
In another move, uniform timing of 11am to 1pm has been fixed for taluka mamlatdars and deputy collectors to jointly listen to grievances and address them latest by the next sitting. So also a new email ID saang.goenkar@gov.in has been introduced, which will be accessed by the minister, revenue secretary and collectors.
The department also intends to introduce online services before the month-end to ensure applying and receiving of certificates is made available through e-services. Similarly, a single window for partition and conversion is in the pipeline.
Khaunte proposed introducing a series of technology-based services in May such as IVRS-based citizen response system integrated with SMS gateway to give one stop solution for checking status of applications and registering grievances. “The calls will be attended by trained personnel who will collect the details from the respective offices and call the citizen back with the details. If grievance redressal is not up to the satisfaction of the citizen, the matter will be escalated to the next level and directions given accordingly,” he added.
Backpack kits for village level services will also be in place at selected locations on a pilot project basis, to eventually cover all the places. “Trained staff will move to the villages with a tablet, printer, scanner and projector to help people upload applications on the e-district portal. The receipts will be generated online. The kits can be used for creating awareness on various government schemes,” he disclosed.
The introduction of ‘Happy Quotient Recording’ is perhaps the first time in any government department wherein a citizen’s response to a service he/she availed will be submitted digitally in form of a ‘smiley’.
“The recording of smiley will also include contact numbers of the persons so that if he/she is unhappy with any service, we will call him/her to our office and seek details. This will help us improve our system,” the minister stated.
