Bengaluru, Jan 20: Caste, income and residence certificates are now being issued over the counter by the Karnataka state government from this month, in what is touted as India's first such facility.
Applicants are issued these three certificates instantly - in under 10 minutes - without the need for any field verification, resulting in significant time-saving for both citizens as well as revenue officials. Launched earlier this month, the facility is available in 100 taluks across 17 districts.
Around 1.5 crore caste, income and residence certificates are issued every year, making it four-fifths of all documents issued by the state government. It is estimated that village accountants, revenue inspectors and tahsildars spend half their time in the verification process involved in issuing these three certificates.
"Two years ago, we took the ration card database, printed village-wise booklets with family details and conducted field inquiry through which we recorded caste, income and residence details of four crore citizens," said Survey, Settlement and Land Records commissioner Munish Moudgil, who is anchoring this project. Bengaluru has not been covered as the revenue department does not have the resources to cover "such a big city".
Karnataka has 1.24 crore families with ration cards, of which the department has entered details of 94 lakh families. "So, we have pre-created certificates available with us in the database," he said.
"An applicant has to walk into any citizen service centre, provide the ration card number or his name. The software will throw up a list of names matching our records. The applicant, after confirming the details, will be issued the certificate over the counter without any verification," he said. The regular mode of issuance takes nearly two weeks.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
They will mess up with aadhaar card. Wait and see
Most of the people not known with many facilities. Should ensure reach of the implemented facilities. Good job
It will be more helpful.. But chances of corruption increased
Great.. Great doing Siddu
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