During the launch, the Delhi government had said that over 25 lakh transactions take place annually for the 40 services in question.Between September and January, 45,911 public services — including caste certificates and driving licences — were home delivered in the national capital under the Delhi government’s doorstep delivery of public services scheme, at an expense of Rs 2.43 crore, RTI data has revealed.
The initiative, which has 40 public services under its ambit, was launched on September 10 last year.
The first five months recorded an average 26,982 service requests, the Administrative Reforms (AR) Department, which is supervising the project, said in response to an RTI application filed by The Indian Express.
While AR is overseeing its implementation, the project is being executed by private firm VFS Global Services. The government has incurred an expenditure of Rs 2.43 crore under the scheme so far, says the RTI response.
While the months of September and October saw VFS registering 37,395 and 31,342 service requests respectively, the number dipped to 16,631 in November.
However, since then the scheme has picked up, with 24,847 and 24,699 requests being registered in December and January respectively.
During the launch, the Delhi government had said that over 25 lakh transactions take place annually for the 40 services in question.
Under the arrangement, once service requests are put in by dialling the 1076 helpline, field agents known as ‘mobile sahayaks’ visit households for the necessary paperwork and uploading on government portals.
There are 200 mobile sahayaks, who charge Rs 50 per visit, while the service requests are accepted and fed into the system by 273 call centre staffers. There were 336 call centre operators functioning in December.
On that front, the sahayaks attended to 1.24 lakh requests till January. The month-wise break-up was 19,103 in September; 48,131 in October; 16,631 in November; 21,588 in December; and 18,455 in January.
The rate of disposal of requests stand at around 11,000 per month.
The revenue department, under which services such as caste certificates, incomes certificates and marriage certificates fall, has been handling the maximum number of applications since the inception of the service.
The December and January figures reflect the trend, with revenue handling 15,580 and 13,817 requests respectively while the department of food and civil supplies occupies the distant second spot with 3,723 and 3,740 requests respectively.
Responding to another RTI query filed by The Indian Express, the department shared figures that showed that with revenue, the demand for getting OBC and SC certificates trumped all other requests.
