The BMC’s birth and death registration office in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 9: Log on to the official website of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), click on the “e-services” section, and chances are that 50 per cent of these online services will not be available or accessible.

The homepage of the website www.bmc.gov.in lists eight services under the heads citizen grievance, apply marriage certificate, birth and death certificate, BMC tender, Kalyan Mandap reservation, Mahayatra (reservation of hearse), online cess pool emptier and water tanker reservation.

However, if you click on the last three services, you will not be redirected to another page while the citizen grievance service cannot be accessed beyond a point.

The online Kalyan Mandap reservation, which started two years ago, is perhaps the only service on the website that has been successful. The citizens of the capital can conveniently opt for online payment and reservation of these community centres for social dos.

Similarly, though the e-services for online marriage registration, birth and death certificate registration and BMC tender are available online, there have been very few takers because of lack of awareness regarding these facilities.

So far, there has been not a single registration of marriage certificates through the website despite the fact that the service has been in existence for almost a year now.

“One can only register online for birth and death certificate but that has no value. For, the applicant is required to produce the hard copy of the certificates at the city health office again for the process to be completed. This is double the work and we cannot grumble about this for the reason that the citizen grievance e-service is not accessible,” said local businessman Maheswar Behera.

Besides, the BMC’s ambitious plan to have an online system for payment of holding tax is yet to be accessible through the Internet. Earlier, the civic body had set up an information technology management unit with an aim to streamline its functioning and service delivery to citizens.

Sources at the BMC said dearth of experts has been a major factor for the lack of proper implementation of the e-services. “The dearth of adequate as well as expert manpower is the reason behind the slow implementation of online services,” said a senior official of BMC, adding that the city residents were not aware of this facility.

The source said there were only four persons managing the IT-related work of the BMC while the ideal manpower should be around 10.

City mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said the Centre has engaged IT major Wipro to prepare a detailed project report to strengthen the online facilities. “Residents can avail more services online in future,” said Jena.