Aug. 9: It is not unusual for a resident of Karbi Anglong to liken any difficult task to extracting an official document from the district headquarters.

“Gosh! You mean it is more difficult than getting a permanent residency certificate issued?”

Worn-out shoes, dwindling finances and innumerable trips from one department to another are truths accepted by anybody seeking an official certificate.

In another month, all that will change, as will the popular Karbi Anglong adage.

Come September, the district administration will launch an “e-service” through which a person can get his required official documents within “the shortest possible time without having to move any government office”.

No need to grease palms or ears (read sycophancy), documents will be delivered to villagers right at their doorstep.

Titled as Jana Sewa, the project will kick off with six important documents for which villagers are usually required to queue up in front of government offices for days — caste certificates, permanent residency certificates, bakijai clearance certificates, senior citizen certificates and certified copies of electoral rolls.

Karbi Anglong deputy commissioner M. Angamuthu said the idea was to use online technology available with the National Informatics Centre to give a citizen the official document he/she needs with the minimum fuss.

“Each block-level centre will be used as an ‘e access kendra’ and we will install sophisticated equipment to executive the task as fast as possible,” Angamuthu said.

The administration will spend Rs 36.53 lakh on building the required infrastructure. “In the initial stage, awareness meetings will be organised for villagers, as the system is totally new.

“Now, a youth seeking his permanent residential certificate can move the e-access kendra with his application and a minimum fee. The centre will verify his documents and take these to the district headquarters from where the certificate will be issued. After all the process is through, the candidate can collect the certificate from the village centre itself,” said additional deputy commissioner Gunada Sarma.

Once work begins, the number of documents that will be available with the e-access kendras will be increased to 23.

“It will reduce both the hassle of the person applying for a document and the rate of corruption at the official level. There will a gap between the person applying for a certificate and the issuing authority, but the work will be done in the shortest time possible,” said Subir Kumar Nandi, a senior official at the Diphu National Informatics Centre.