IEP Chandigarh, September 21, 2022
Punjab Governance Reforms Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer on Friday directed all Deputy Commissioners of Punjab to ensure use of Self declaration instead of Affidavits while processing cases of public service delivery.
Meet Hayer further informed that State Government had already adopted Self declaration instead of taking attested affidavits. Instructions were already issued in 2010 but it was only on papers and not implemented and was not followed by offices. During review of Sewa Kendras, it has been observed that a lot of people are coming to Sewa Kendras for Affidavit Attestations.
From January 2022, Total 4,38,058 affidavits prepared and attested from Sewa Kendras. More than 2100 citizens are visiting daily at Sewa Kendras only for Affidavit attestations. An Officer at rank of Executive Magistrate is being deputed by districts to attest these Affidavits. During interaction with citizens, it has come to notice that at the district level including Government/Private offices and school/colleges are still demanding affidavits for various reasons like admissions, certificates, scholarships, Meter Connections, Tubewell Connections, recruitments, NOC etc. This is not only costs money to Citizens but also involves wastage of time of the citizens as well as Government officials.
He said that the government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has clear vision to provide public services to common citizen in a hassle free manner and this step will save both time and money of the citizen of Punjab.
