Bhubaneswar: The housing and urban development department has opened a central help desk in the city that will help to deliver an array of online services to the people with ease.
The central desk that was inaugurated on Monday at the public heath building near the Rajiv Bhavan will assist the urban local bodies in extending online services, including utility bill payments, birth and death certificate registration among others.
"The help desk will support all urban election bodies of the state to fast track the online services to the citizens through e-Municipality platform," posted the housing and urban development department on its official Facebook page.
Officials said the central help desk would have four technical persons, who will remain in readiness to respond to queries aired by civic body officials related to extension of the online services. "We have a technical cell at the government level, which prepares plans to strengthen the online services. The central help desk in the meantime will add a different dimension to the service delivery system," said a department official.
At present, people are availing themselves of an array of online services delivered by the civic body such as online payment of holding tax and trade licence fees, registration of birth and death certificates and submission of grievances among others.
However, some of the services are on a partial or pilot stage such as the online holding tax collection is being done only in six wards. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is planning to make the service online for the entire city by September.
Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had constantly improving the online service delivery system in the city. "Our officials as well as the citizens are not fully aware of the services as of now. The help desk will come beneficial at such stage," said Jena.
Residents have welcomed the move of the state government. "Many are opting for online services over the manual ones since it saves time and resources. It is a good move to increase the base of the online services in such manner," said Patia resident Apurba Rana.
