PANAJI: The government has disbanded Mahiti Ghars, citizen service centres, as legal agreements under which these centres had been established have expired.
A government communiqué has said that legal agreements under which the Mahiti Ghars had been established have expired and are no longer valid. Hence the government “issued notice of termination to all 13 Mahiti Ghars on 01/09/2010”.
“Proceedings for evicting Mahiti Ghars from unauthorised occupation of government premises are underway,” the communiqué said. The people have been informed that revenue department services can now be availed online at www.goaonline.gov.in.
Form I & XIV will also be issued to the public by the mamlatdar offices and survey plans will be issued by the ISLRs.
Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte told ‘The Navhind Times’ on Thursday that those manning the Mahiti Ghars are being removed.
The Mahiti Ghars were introduced in 2002 to provide 15 e-services to the public. But over the years the number of e-services rendered has come down to less than five.
The then chief minister Manohar Parrikar had introduced the concept of Mahiti Ghar, a citizen service centre, to provide an array of services like learner’s licence, birth and death records, details of regional plan, Form I & XIV, title records, survey plans, sale deed copies and marriage certificates. To provide prompt service to the public, the government had set up 13 Mahiti Ghars across the state on public-private partnership model. They had been aimed at being single window service delivery channels for government to citizen (G2C) and government to business (G2B) services for ensuring accessibility, convenience, transparency and timeliness in service delivery.
Sources in the government said that there have been complaints that sometimes citizens were denied e-services on petty excuses like poor Internet connectivity.
Moreover, there have been allegations of misuse of power by some Mahiti Ghar operators.
There has also been a demand that Mahiti Ghars be shut down for they failed to deliver on expected lines.
The government has recently introduced many services online under the initiative of ‘Digital Goa’ and made available services of issuing various certificates under e-district portal.