LG rejects AAP govt's proposal on doorstep delivery services

NEW DELHI: In another major setback to AAP government, the ambitious proposal for doorstep delivery of around 40 odd public services was on Tuesday reportedly rejected by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal. While the Raj Niwas has clarified that L-G has only advised to reconsider the proposal in its present form and has suggested to consider alternative model to eliminate corruption and improve public service delivery.

In a Twitter post titled, 'Today I feel sad for people of Delhi...' Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, said, "LG rejects Delhi Govt's proposal of doorstep delivery services. LG has sent it back for reconsideration of the Cabinet. L-G says digitalization of services enough and there is no need for doorstep delivery."

"Most of these services are already digital. Yet, there are long queues in govt offices. This is because despite digitalization, most people still have to visit govt offices with their documents etc, the photo banner reads.

"L-G has taken decision without knowing field reality. When doorstep delivery scheme was announced a few days back after its approval by Cabinet, it was welcomed by all sections of society. L-G's rejection is a huge setback in Delhi govt's efforts to provide good and corruption free governance," it further reads.

The post also claims that the rejection also raises a serious constitutional issue. "Should L-G have power to reject such critical matters of importance," it said.

On the other hand, the L-G office has claimed that L-G has observed that there are issues with the model proposed by the government as it would introduce another layer of human interface with its attendant complications including concerns associated with safety and security of women/senior citizens, possibility of corruption, delays, bad behavior, loss of documents, breach of privacy, etc.

"Further, the service delivery persons would have to undertake lakhs of unnecessary road trips on the already congested Delhi Roads adding to the air pollution. The present model would also cost the government and the residents of Delhi as the Government would have to pay service charges and the people would have to pay facilitation charges as per the proposal of the government," the Raj Niwas added.

"LG noted that all these concerns can be addressed as the government can alternately switch to 100% online delivery of services. This is important as the whole world is shifting towards digital delivery of services as it is the most effective tool to weed out corruption since it minimizes human interface, delays and discretion. This is achievable in Delhi as 35 out of 40 services proposed by the government for door step delivery are already available online," Baijal office further clarified.

"LG has advised that the matter be reconsidered with the aim to put in place a model which provides for 100% digital delivery of services to people and facilitates access to bridge the digital divide.

"To provide access to the internet, the Government can consider enabling the unemployed youth to set up internet kiosks where these services can be accessed and made available. The Government can also devise a model to provide soft loans to the young entrepreneurs to set up such kiosks," Raj Niwas added.