Chennai: The State City Administration Department has urged all cities and companies other than The Greater Chennai Corporation to ensure that their services are offered online for the public.
City Administration Director, Ponnia, on August 13 issued local bodies that instructed circular to ensure the delivery of online services in the case of self-assessment of property tax returns, property retribution and collection of property taxes, applications for property tax transfers and names transfer orders issues .
Urbanepay.tn.gov.in) information system information system must be used, officially directed, adding that this will be an increase for ease of doing business.
When implemented, online services will bring relief to Lakh residents living in areas regulated by smaller local bodies such as Avadi Corporation, Pallavaram Municipality, Tambaram Municipality, Sriparumbudur Town Panchayat and others.
This is the area that have sprung up within 20-30km of Chennai, but the facilities are not comparable to those available in the city.
V Pugalventhan, an activist who lives in Kundrathur in the outskirts of the city, said that GCC offers services such as property taxes, water taxes, birth certificates and death online.
But other local bodies failed to replicate this model.
“The website is really unprofessional and looks like a blogger site,” he said.
Because of the absence of online services, residents must run from pillar-to-post for basic public services such as birth certificates or death certificates from local offices, he said.
“Currentlhy, this work is not done without bribery payments.
If the service is brought online, bribery payments can be removed,” he said.
He quoted a reply to the RTI application by Sriperumbudur Town Panchayat which denied the order of orders or instructions to process online applications for new property tax assessments or water connection requests.