In ‘faceless’ Delhi Jal Board, help centres to replace offices

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will soon be shutting its existing zonal revenue offices and replacing them with “sahayta kendras” or help centres and also launching a new phone application “DJB4You”

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will soon be shutting its existing zonal revenue offices and replacing them with “sahayta kendras” or help centres and also launching a new phone application “DJB4You”, for streamlining the grievance redressal system, a senior official of the water utility, overseeing the implementation of the faceless services project, has said.

App, helpline, help centres in ‘faceless’ Delhi Jal Board reforms

According to an internal order of the DJB on Friday, finalising the modalities of the faceless offices project, a 15-day limit has been fixed for sanctioning of services after which the applications will be deemed approved.

Among a host of other changes, the board has decided to rejig its entire zonal level administrative structure in order to facilitate closure of zonal revenue offices (ZROs). All existing ZROs will be closed and only processing work will take place in revenue offices without any public interaction, the order from additional CEO and director (revenue) Akriti Sagar said.

“The 70 zonal revenue officers will operate in 11 pools, each headed by joint directors. Eleven joint director offices will be set up and the pool of officers will work on monitoring, inspections, audits etc. Now the primary mode of communication between the 2.4 million consumers and the DJB will be the mobile app DJB4You, the 1916 helpline, the doorstep delivery service and the new shayata kendras,” a DJB official said, requesting anonymity.

The DJB official quoted above said orders have also been issued for facelifting all DJB offices to turn them into good customer service facilities with waiting area, token machines, cubicles, computers, furniture and improved internet connectivity.

Last month, Hindustan Times reported that water minister Satyendar Jain has issued orders for shifting all existing DJB services to the online mode — a move first made by the transport department that took the functions of several regional transport offices (RTO) online earlier this year.

The order from the additional CEO also said several changes have been made in the service delivery and that services must be sanctioned/ approved within 15 days or they will be deemed approved on the 16th day. Moreover, field inspections will be discontinued for new connections to plots measuring up to 200 square metres (sqm).

A DJB official said separate orders have been issued to ensure that in cases of house-lock meters — property remains locked for a prolonged period — bill will be generated only for service charge and not consumption.

Atul Goel, who heads URJA (an umbrella body of resident welfare groups), suggested that while the 15-day limit for deemed sanction of services is a good concept, the water utility should ensure that computer generated automatic certificates of deemed sanction is a part of the system. “If the user does not have a document proving sanction , it will still leave scope for harassment,” Goel said.