Kolkata: State Finance minister Amit Mitra on Monday virtually inaugurated hassle-free online services for citizens in municipal areas in the form of e-building plan (grihanaksha), e-trade license and e-mutation. The sanction for such online applications will be given within 15 days.
"There is provision of penalty for failure in meeting the deadline unless there is any genuine reason behind the delay,"Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi said at the inaugural programme. Chandrima Bhattacharjee, state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister, said all the 123 urban local bodies (ULBs) across the state had been included in the integrated system for trade license and around 2 crore people would be benefitted.
In the online building plan platform, 60 ULBs have been included and another 39 will be integrated within three months. More than 1.5 crore people in the state will be benefited through this service.
"District-wise training has been imparted to all concerned officers so that they are equipped to handle this service with ease. Leaflets will be distributed in the municipal areas and wide publicity will be made through social media," Bhattacharjee said.
Claiming that the introduction of the online services is a major intervention towards Ease of Doing Business (EODB), the Chief Secretary pointed out that there was no uniformity among the ULBs (expect Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Howrah Municipal Corporation) in these matters and each of them had their own way. Often there were complaints of inordinate delay in building plan sanction or granting of trade license.
"With the online system in place we will be able to monitor things and can seek explanations from municipalities for delays. The industries too require services like trade licenses and sometimes building plans too. So, they will also reap benefits of this online facility," he added.
Pointing out a unique feature of the facilities, Mitra said auto calculation of fee charges can be seen digitally and no person will have to reach out physically to a concerned person for knowing such charges.
The state government rolled out a toll free helpline number 18003458251, a dedicated help desk at Nagarayan and an email id helpdesk.sws.udma@wb.gov.in for answering queries related to these services.