The online services of the Greater Chennai Corporation has been very helpful to people born in Chennai and employed in foreign countries.
The Greater Chennai Corporation is set to introduce new online services, including correction of birth and death details, community hall booking and getting information under the RTI Act and streamline existing service delivery for residents.
According to Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, the initiatives were part of the State government’s plans to provide essential services to the citizens at their doorstep through online applications. “Good practices in other places will be sought to be emulated in Chennai,” said Mr. Bedi.
At a series of meetings held to improve the services for residents, officials identified about 16 services that could be offered online.
Geetha Ganesh, secretary of AGS Colony RWA Velachery West, said the list of online services available, besides being available in the GCC website, should be displayed on a board in front of all GCC offices and updated regularly in the website, with stipulated time, eligibility criteria, fee amount, procedure of applications, dos and don’ts in application, officials responsible and date of clearance of admitted applications, expected time for approval of any services, and if delayed by authorities, the reason for delay should be mentioned clearly.
According to available data, in 2020-2021, about 38.35 lakh residents used the existing birth certificate services for download of certificate online from various parts of the world. Residents who were born in Chennai and have been employed abroad used a large number of such online services. But they had not been able to get online services for correction of details in the birth certificate.
The Corporation has integrated the existing online birth certificate and death certificate services with portals such as Aadhaar and e-Sanad. The latter provides a centralised platform for paperless document verification service for Indian citizens and to foreigners who have obtained documents from the authorities in India. The e-Sanad project is being implemented in a phased manner, ensuring that the foreign employers and other verification agencies get digitally verified genuine documents.
Some services, including issuance of birth and death certificates, are provided free of cost by the Corporation.
As many as 5,696 applications for company tax assessment in Chennai were processed by the civic body in 2020-2021 and have been integrated with the Guidance Bureau single window portal and Tamil Nadu State single window portal, the officials said.
A total of 53,381 trade licence services were provided during 2020-2021 in Chennai. At least 12,803 applications for building approval have been processed during 2020-2021. 
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Printable version | Jun 13, 2022 6:31:39 pm | https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/chennai-corporation-to-launch-new-online-services/article65520506.ece
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