By IANS,
Chandigarh : In a major concession to common people across Punjab, the state government Friday announced that mandatory affidavits for government-related works will soon be replaced with self-declarations by the person concerned.
The main services where this will apply are residence and area certificates, income certificates, applications for construction and connection in urban areas, pensions, the Scheduled Caste and backward class certificates and ration cards.
The announcement was made by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal after he received the recommendations of the Governance Administrative Reforms Commission here.
Badal immediately accepted, in principle, the commission’s recommendation to do away with filling of affidavits, except in cases where it is mandatory by law and asked the state’s financial commissioner (revenue) to replace affidavits with self declarations.
He said that any wrong declaration made will be punishable in the same manner as in the case of false evidence which was covered by the provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC), especially Sections 199 and 200.
“Government departments harass public by seeking affidavits for public utility services and for new power connections, water and sewerage connections etc. Affidavits impose their own cost on citizens in the shape of buying of stamp paper, locating a deed writer, payment to a notary for attestation,” Badal noted.
The commission chairman, Pramod Kumar, and Punjab Chief Secretary S.C. Agarwal had a detailed meeting regarding the administrative reforms recommendations and the deadlines to be fixed for its implementation.
Badal had proposed that self-attestation by the applicant (in place of attestation by notary/gazetted officer) for copies of original documents be introduced, noting these changes will result in substantial saving of time and money and make it possible to provide most of the need-based services immediately.
Under the new administrative reforms, Punjab is all set to become second state in the country authorising dealers of automobiles to act as registering authority for non-commercial vehicle on first sale.
The scheme will be implemented initially in six districts – Mohali, Bathinda, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar – and extended to the full state by July 31 this year.