Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Simplify procedures

‘To be attested by a gazetted officer’ — how often do we see these words while filling up forms? Hundreds of times, I am sure. While on the one hand, we bask in the glory of the IT boom, on the other, we are constantly reminded of our bureaucratic heritage. At a time when we can pay our bills and taxes online, and even get married online, we have to look for gazetted officer to register the marriage. When we have unique identity cards such as the PAN, voter’s ID, passport, and driving licence, and when we can furnish details like date of birth from school records, residence proof with the help of passports, ration cards, and voter ID cards, and if necessary, furnish affidavits from a notary public, why do we need the signature of a gazetted officer on our documents for various transactions?

There are many day-to-day activities for which we need to interact with government offices. Forms and processes need to be drastically changed. Processes need to be streamlined and forms made available online. Archaic requirements like attestation by gazetted officers should be replaced with self attestation wherever possible. I hope someone, somewhere, will have the wisdom of understanding what all this means to the ordinary people.

Abhishek Gaur,
New Delhi

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