No more office visits; Citizens of Punjab to get certificates on mobile phones

• Move won’t only save the time but will also save money as earlier people had to shell out over Rs 50 per copy of a certificate, says Aman Arora

• All offices to accept the certificates and authenticity of certificates can be checked on e-Sewa Portal

• Over 15 lacs certificates delivered on mobile phones via SMS

Chandigarh, April 24:

From now onwards, people of Punjab will not have to run from pillar to post for getting certificates as Chief Minister S Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has started delivery of approved certificates directly on mobile phones of citizens via SMS.

Revealing this, Punjab Governance Reforms and Grievances Minister Mr Aman Arora informed that now, citizens won’t need to visit any office/Sewa Kendras for collection of hard copies of certificates. The consumer will receive a link via SMS on mobile phone and they can download the certificate and all the offices will accept the certificate. Even the authenticity of these certificates can be checked online on e-Sewa Portal, he added.

The move will not only save the time and energy of the people but will also save the money as earlier people had to shell out over Rs 50 per copy of a certificate, besides, bearing other expenses for coming to office, he informed.

As many as 15 lacs certificates have been delivered to people on their mobile phones, said the cabinet minister, while adding that as many as 16 certificates including Birth certificate, Death certificate, Rural Area certificate, Income certificate, Marriage certificate, Income & Asset Certificate (EWS), Residence certificate, SC/BC/OBC/General certificate, Old age pension, Disabled person pension, Widow/Destitute women pension, Dependent children pension and Senior Citizen ID card are being delivered on mobile phones via SMS.

Mr Aman Arora said that the time has gone when bulky files were prepared for getting certificates ready and then moving from one table to other in Government Offices and then no tracking, status checking and timelines. The e-Sewa portal esewa.punjab.gov.in has resolved all such issues and the processing of applications has been speed-up without any need to move any file. This has resulted into taking the e-Sewa State Pendency to as less as 0.25%, he added.

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MORE THAN 430 SERVICES ON E-SEWA PORTAL

Director Governance Reforms and Grievances Mr Girish Dayalan said that the e-Sewa portal has been developed and maintained by in-house team of 40 Software Engineers and other technical experts. Over 430 services are being delivered from the portal. Till now, over 3 Crores applications have been processed using this portal and more than 6000 users are using this system. These users including officer/officials of DC Offices, SDM Offices, Tehslil Offices, SMO Offices, EOMC Offices, DSSO Offices, Agriculture department offices, Private Hospitals and by Sews Kendras.

At the District level, Department of Governance Reforms deployed District Technical Coordinators, District IT Managers, Assistant District IT Manager to train, monitor and support other department for e-Sewa Portal, he informed.