Arvind Kejriwal dampens the spirit of digitalization by introducing documentation process

NEW DELHI: Last year only, the hard-hitting concept of demonetization forced India to come up with the terms of digitalization. The base behind such a move was to root out black money and it has been achieved to a great extent. But with the recent uproar of a new proposal by the AAP party may chock all these efforts of digitalization.

Delhi government has come up with the proposal of "Doorstep Delivery of Public Services" which was approved on November 16 by the Delhi cabinet and seeks to provide 40 key public services, such as caste and birth certificates, licences, vehicle registrations, and pensions to senior citizens among few other services.

As per the scheme, a government representative would visit the applicant's house after the request and will collect, certify and upload their documents for the required service.

Later a draft was sent to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, Anil Baijal, for his consent on the "Doorstep Delivery of Public Services". The new scheme didn't go well with LG office and was sent back for reconsideration of the proposal, citing safety concerns.

But, Arvind Kejriwal blamed the LG for 'rejecting' the doorstep delivery of public services project and raised questions about the democratic rights. The development sparked a serious of argument between the AAP party and LG office.

Then a press release was released by the LG office to hush the disagreement. LG clarified that the proposal wasn't rejected but sent back to the Delhi government to reconsider its parameters. As the doorstep service may lead to the safety concerns for women and senior citizens, the possibility of corruption, bad behaviour, breach of privacy and loss of documents amongst few other things.

Also, it doesn't make any sense to pull down all the efforts to make India a digital global hub by bringing back all the complex process of documentation. The uncertainty around the new proposal also raises some suspicion on the AAP party, as the new scheme may be a move to run campaigns, incite corruption and influence the public opinion for the next elections.