Online services 24 civic bodies found wanting

Twenty-four urban local bodies, including four Municipal Corporations, six Nagar Panchayats and 15 Municipal Councils, in the state have been found wanting in implementing people-centric services through the Citizen Seva Portal.

Online facilities like garbage collection identities, new trade licence and pet registration are supposed to be provided through the portal, as per the directions of the Urban Development Department. The department recently rated the urban bodies in two phases under its Swachh Shehar-Samridh Shehar initiative.

Solan fares well; Baddi, Parwanoo trail

The Solan Municipal Corporation, which was upgraded from a municipal council in 2020, has scored 24 points for introducing Citizen Sewa Portal, exhibiting its determination to facilitate the residents. “The Solan civic body has been providing the online services for the last few years. A systematic approach has been adopted to add more facilities every year,” said Ekta Kapta, Commissioner, Solan Municipal Corporation.

However, Baddi, the other Municipal Corporation in Solan district, has fared poorly by securing a mere 7.8 points. Parwanoo, another civic body in the district, could only get a score of 5.6. The two civic bodies cater to a large population as these are also industrial clusters. There is a dire need to introduce online services here to promote transparency and to plug the delays faced by the residents in availing of various services.

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The portal also provides for income generation activities like booking community hall ground, permission for granting advertisement like hoarding and canopies, asset creation, creating identity for charging property tax, etc. While the online services bring efficiency, transparency and accountability in the working of the civic bodies, it also saves time of the residents, who don’t have to visit the offices to avail of these services.

The Nagar Panchayats of Rewalsar, Amb, Rajgarh, Daulatpur, Banjar and Chirgaon; Municipal Corporations of Shimla, Baddi, Hamirpur and Mandi have been found wanting in providing the online services. Municipal Councils of Nurpur, Nadaun, Jwalamukhi, Chamba, Rohru, Bilaspur, Rampur, Nagrota, Santokhgarh, Nahan, Parwanoo, Kullu, Ner Chowk and Paonta Sahib have also exhibited indifference in facilitating the residents by introducing the online services.

They have scored less than 10 marks and are in dire need of improvement. These civic bodies scored as less as 9.1 to 5 marks which is abysmally low and less than 50 per cent of the score granted to civic bodies having introduced these services. On the other hand, the Sundernagar Municipal Council has fared well with a score of 29.2.