New Delhi: If you're living in small-town UP (or for that matter, small-town anywhere in India), what is your experience of getting any government document from the local body? Let's say, a birth/death certificate, or applying for old-age pension? In a typical case, you may have to stand in a long queue to get the appropriate form, often after paying a fee for it, even though such basic government forms are supposed to be freely available. Then you need another queue to submit the form, which also often involves greasing palms of the peons or junior clerks. If you succeed in getting your papers through, there is no way to know how long (or how expensive) getting that work done is going to be.
For millions of poors and illiterates in India who don't know their rights or laws, getting anything done in a government office can be a harrowing experience. Not in Ashrafpur Kichauchha area in Ambedkar Nagar district of UP, thanks to the the humble yet revolutionary initiative of a government officer, Alok Kumar Singh. Singh, serving as an Executive Officer at the Ashrafpur Kichauchha area in Ambedkar Nagar district, has created a website (http://npakmakdoom.com/) that has provided the kind of transparency to its citizens that even some of the best government websites fail to do.
So, if you're a resident of Ashrafpur Kichauchha, all you have to do is to log on to Singh's website, go to the relevant section and print out the form
02:29 PM, Nov 08, 2012
