Citizens will no longer be required to get documents attested by a
gazetted officer or file affidavits for government-related work, with the
Centre deciding to settle for self-attested documents such as birth certificate
and mark sheets.
The Centre has also written to the state governments to do away
with the requirement of attaching affidavits issued by notary or documents
attested by gazetted officers with applications made to government
departments.
This will save the common man the trouble of finding a gazetted
officer or from spending money to get affidavits from a notary. Applicants to
the government now only need to attach self-certified copies of their
marksheet, birth certificate, etc. Self-attestation norms, however, will
require them to produce the original documents at the final stage.
The switch to self-attestation in government-related work is based
on the recommendation of second Administrative Reforms Commission in its 12th
report titled 'Citizen centric administration - The heart of governance'. It
had recommended simplifying procedures for self-certification provision.
Getting an affidavit is a very cumbersome process. People have to
pay Rs 100-500 for getting affidavits from a notary. Most of the gazetted
officials also do not give their nod for affidavits in the absence of
sufficient documents.
"The situation is worse in villages and in remote areas. If
state governments promote self-attestation it will be a boon for people,"
an official of the department of administrative reforms and public grievances
was quoted by the PTI as saying.
An office memorandum sent by the department to the state chief
secretaries said the method of self-attestation is "citizen friendly and
obtaining either an attested copy or affidavit not only costs money but also
involves wastage of time of the citizens and the government
officials".
"It is requested to kindly review the existing requirements of
attested copy or affidavit in various application forms in a phased manner and
wherever possible make provision for self-certification of documents, after
obtaining the approval from competent authority".
Source : The Times
of India
