VASCO
The rush of women at the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) continued for the third day, as huge queues on Wednesday stretched right from the basement of the MMC building to the first floor.
Councillor Lavina D’Souza said women had been rushing for income certificates since the last few days and there was no social distance maintained, which could cause another wave of Covid-19 in the port town.
A woman said she had been waiting for three days and her forms were changed twice. “On Wednesday, I brought a plastic chair from home because I was tired of standing in a line for many hours to get the certificate,” said the woman.
When contacted, MMC Chief Officer Arvind Bugde said there was no reason for women to rush to MMC in huge numbers to seek the signature of the gazetted officer (Chief Officer) for income certificates. “They can get the signatures from other gazetted officers and submit the forms to get the certificates,” he added.
“As of now, people are rushing to get my signatures as a gazetted officer. We are identifying gazetted officers in every ward so that this issue can be resolved.”
“If they get forms signed by these gazetted officers in their wards, women need not wait in the line and forms can be sent with relevant documents as per the checklist and the declaration form even from their husbands.”
“We can issue income certificates within eight days if all forms are complete and there is no need to rush,” said Bugde.
Later in the day, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant announced that owing to Covid safety norms, the government had resolved not to demand a life certificate from all the 2.20 lakh beneficiaries of Griha Aadhaar and Dayanand Social Security Yojana (DSSY).
“Only 6,000 beneficiaries of the DSSY and 7,829 beneficiaries of Griha Aadhaar, who could not be verified owing to various reasons will have to submit a life certificate or an income certificate or both as per the written communication sent to them,” said Sawant.
“Do not crowd Mamlatdar, MLA offices and panchayat unnecessarily for life and income certificate unless you have received a communication requesting this,” the CM said.
