AAP government resends ‘doorstep delivery’ proposal to L-G

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will resend the proposal for the ambitious ‘doorstep delivery of services scheme’ to lieutenant governor Anil Baijal for approval, with a detailed reply to each objection raised by him.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the government was preparing a response to the objections raised by the LG and the same will be sent with a detailed reply to all the queries.

The scheme, under which the AAP government wants to provide 40 services, including driving licence, ration cards, caste certificates among others, at the doorstep of the citizens, was sent for the approval of the LG.

However, Mr Baijal returned the proposal asking the Delhi government to reconsider and raised several objections, including safety of citizens and corruption.

The government had called the scheme “historic” and said that no citizen would have to stand in queues to get their job done once the scheme gets approved.

In his objections, Mr Baijal had said the present proposal had implications on safety and security of women and senior citizens, privacy, loss of documents, and that it added unnecessary expenditure for the government and the people.

Following this, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia hit out at the LG and wondering whether he was empowered to express difference of opinion with an elected government on critical matters of public interest.

He also asked Mr Baijal if he was trying to “protect” the corrupt system by the opposing the proposal.

To the government’s comparison of the scheme with pizza delivery at the doorstep of citizens, the LG had said, “Pizza, unlike documents, cannot be downloaded.”

Replying to the LG’s pizza remark, the deputy chief minister had said that just like “pizza can’t be downloaded online, a human being seeking a certificate cannot be uploaded and sent to a government office for verification”.