Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has issued instructions to the MCD to make all its services that require a public interface to be IT-enabled and made online by 31 July.

Reviewing the IT initiatives being undertaken by the MCD in a meeting yesterday, Saxena emphasised that all citizen-centric services like registration of Birth & Death, Property Tax, E-mutation, Building Plan Sanction, Layout Approval, Licenses, Conversion & Parking charges, Advertisement & Hoarding fees collection, Cremation & Burials and tracking of Garbage vehicles, etc that were hitherto being planned to be computerized in a piece-meal manner, be brought online on a common simply accessible platform and made fully IT-enabled by 31 July.

Insisting that the aim should be to ensure minimum human interface in the delivery of its services, the Delhi Lieutenant Governor said this will while ensuring effective and timely delivery also cut red tape, minimise inconvenience and harassment of common people, and curtail inefficiency and corruption at all levels.

Appreciating the MCD for its efforts of fully computerising the registrations of Birth & Death, he asked for linkage of this database to the government departments that provided services like Food Security, Pensions, Maternity Benefits, and other welfare schemes, so that automatic updating or deletion of names could happen upon birth or death. This he said will ensure plugging leakages and put a stop to instances of ‘ghost beneficiaries.

Upon being informed about the high figure of 26 percent of births being registered to have happened at home and not in a hospital/nursing home, he instructed officials to randomly check a ward with the highest at-home births and find out the reasons behind it.

Directing officials to achieve full automation in property tax filing, collection, assessment, and recovery, Saxena advised that all properties within the city limits – commercial as well as residential be brought under the tax net so that MCD’s incomes increase and it is able to provide better services.

Expressing concern over the fact that properties, commercial establishments, and people in as much as 65 percent of the geographical area of Delhi did not pay any property tax, Saxena said it was an unfortunate, unfair, and unviable situation.

Since the entire city and not only the 35 percent of residents of 11 lakhs houses living in authorized/regularized colonies were availing of the amenities and services offered by the Municipal Corporation, it would only be fair and justified that all pay property tax at differential rates as per their respective self-assessed financial status. For this purpose, he instructed officials to simplify the forms for property tax registration and ensure its Aadhar linkage.

In this regard, the Delhi Lieutenant Governor asked officials to take the people and RWAs on board and address their concerns. Such partnership with the people, he said will not only facilitate honest self-assessment on part of the assesses but also increase tax collection and transparency and ensure better services to the people.

Saxena underlined that MCD had to undertake all efforts to enhance its revenue receipts and reiterated that his goal was to turn the Municipal Corporation’s finances which were currently in the red into a robust green.