the goan I network
MARGAO
A little over a year after outgoing Revenue Minister Rohan Khaunte’s project was inaugurated with much fanfare in June last, Saxttikars still are looking for an answer – is the Citizens Service Centre really a service centre or a torture centre?
Complaints have been galore that the Citizens Service Centre set up at the ground floor of the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative complex has not helped in streamlining the administration, but has only made matters worse for the common citizens.
The latest to join the list of aggrieved citizens is the South Goa Advocates Association, whose President Adv Clovis Da Costa making it clear that what was made available by the administration within minutes in the past now takes hours at the CSC for no fault of the common man, throwing up a question whether the CSC is in place for quick delivery of services or to make the citizens wait for hours at the facility.
“Our association had received a host of complaints on the CSC since the last one year. But, since the facility was new, we all thought that things would improve. Instead, it is only getting worse by the day,” Clovis said.
He cited a number of instances of how citizens and even lawyers are made to wait for two or more hours at the CSC just to obtain Form I & XIV at the CSC. “Earlier, citizens used to get these documents within five minutes. Now, the applicants have no option than to wait at the CSC for two hours or more after being given a token,” he said.
The Advocates Association president also took exception to the application of GST for documents issued by the CSC. “The centre has not taken the citizens forward, but backward. And, there’s no attempt made to streamline the system. The people manning the CSC take the citizens for a ride. Some of them are not well versed with the job,” he said.
Clovis pointed out that citizens face a worse scenario when they apply for survey plans, leaving them no option than to wait for hours to lay their hands on the plans.
He demanded to know why the government insists on the citizens to come to the CSC and make the payments instead of allowing them to make the payments online. “The government talks about cashless system, but here is the case, citizens have to go to the CSC to make the payments online. “Why should citizens be asked to come to CSC and swipe their debit cards when they can make the payments online,” he questioned, while disclosing plans to call on the Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate and the district Collector, South to either tone up the CSC mechanism or revert back to the old system.
A citizen, Evaristo D’Silva said the CSC has not benefited the citizens in any way, saying it has only aggravated their problems. “It was a better deal in the past. When one applies for a survey plan and Form I& XIV, one has to take two different tokens and wait for their turn, losing much time in the process,” he said, while pitching for the old system.
Another citizen Dattaraj Sawant said he has been hanging around the CSC for over an hour just to get a simple job of effecting change in his name in the driving licence. “The token says welcome Citizens Service Centre. In reality, this is not a welcome citizens centre, but a citizens torture centre,” he added.
