Aaple Sarkar: Online grievance redressal and home-delivery of some of the services are on the cards

MUMBAI: Income certificate, age nationality and domicile certificate, police clearance certificate, and migrant caste certificate are the top four services people in Maharashtra have been applying for through an Aaple Sarkar portal of Maharashtra government that offers 1027 different state government services online. Interestingly the rate of disposal for top 10 popular services stands over 85%. For services such as change in name, the disposal rate is almost 99%.Interestingly, the state Revenue, Home, Labour, Industries and Social justice are the top four government departments whose online services are the most availed by citizens, show the latest data (see graphic) made available by the office of chief commissioner of Maharashtra Right To Public Services Act. Services by the Tribal Development Department that served the interest of the population from remote areas of the state figure in the top 10 departments showing highest online delivery of services. In all 33 different government departments have uploaded their services online.It may be mentioned here that after an initial rise of 19% in the first two years after the online services were launched in 2015 through Aaple Sarkar portal, the services showed a constant decline in the number of applicants from 2017-18 till the fiscal 2020-21. However, post covid the 'online boom' appears to have worked with a number of applications showing a consistent rise of approximately 20 per cent every year 2021-22 onwards, officials said based on the data. In the last 10 years of its existence the Apple Sarkar platform that promotes the mandates under MRTPS Act has already received over 18.89 crore applications, with 17.79 crore successfully disposed of, showcasing its wide reach and impact. For citizens who are unable to access the portal online, the government has established 39,783 Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendras (service centres) across the state to ensure inclusivity and convenience.It may also be recalled that recently the Maharashtra government has announced a strict penalty for administrative delays in putting services online which sources said is working in favour of the online delivery of services. Department heads who fail to make notified services available online through Aaple Sarkar portal within the stipulated timeline will face a fine of ₹1,000 per day, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had instructed during a high-level meeting held at the state secretariat in Mumbai a few weeks ago.Similarly, the school curriculum in the state for 9^th and 10 standards will soon witness an inception of chapters based on Maharashtra Right to Public Services (MRTPS) Act seeking more awareness and enhanced accessibility to the online services offered to a common public. State is also reported to have plans to start home-delivery of some of these services under RTS, as experimented in Wardha district recently, in other parts of the state.Officials said very soon the state will not only upgrade its portal to an advanced version, but will also start a mobile app that will make it convenient for the larger populace to access the services by uploading even the heavy documents in terms of megabytes. The move has been prompted by several citizens registering a complaint that the portal did not take their heavy documents while uploading them, eventually making services inaccessible for a larger number of applicants.Aaple Sarkar platform was launched to ensure citizens receive essential government services from the comfort of their homes. However, delays in processing requests or resolving complaints have been frequent, often due to administrative apathy or technical hiccups. Taking serious note of this, Fadnavis had recently directed the Chief Secretary to impose monetary penalties on department heads responsible for delays in taking services online. The move is aimed at holding officers accountable and expediting the digital delivery of services.According to sources the government was also contemplating to evolve a strong grievance redressal mechanism via the Aaple Sarkar platform. Through this the government aims to ensure timely resolution of citizen complaints and more efficient service delivery, it may have to enforce accountability mechanisms, which Maharashtra government hopes will strengthen the trust of the public in its digital governance initiatives and ensure better performance from its departments.