17 June,2011 06:34 AM IST | | Ravikiran Deshmukh
Issues circular directing officials to grant relevant certificates to students, within 15 days of application, to ensure they don't suffer during their admissions due to lack of necessary documents
In a bid to ease the anxiety of students and parents who have been doing the rounds of Tahsil and Collectors' offices this admission season, the state's Chief Secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad has issued a circular directing officials to step up the process and grant creamy layer, nationality and residential certificatesu00a0 required for school and college students, within 15 days of application. These certificates are indispensable for the students who wish to gain admission to schools and colleges across the city.
Uphill task: Thousands of applicants have been queuing up before the
Tahsil and Collectors' offices across the state to secure creamy layer,
nationality and residential proof certificates since the admission
season started. Representation pic
Complaints have been pouring in over inordinate delays involved in the procedure, and the demands made by the authorities for what parents claim are sundry and irrelevant documents. Taking cognisance of these complaints, Gaikwad has warned state government officials that disciplinary action will be initiated if they fail to issue the relevant certificates within the set deadline.
Speaking to the press, he claimed that he had received a slew of complaints against the state government officials regarding the lackadaisical attitudes evinced by them in issuing necessary certificates required for school and college admissions.
He also hinted at complaints received about corruption among the officer's ranks. Coming down hard on these allegedly wayward officials, Gaikwad has directed that details such as the total number of applications covered, and the number of pending applications be forwarded to the state government every fortnight.
Gaikwad has forwarded these directives to the divisional commissioners and district Collectors. The collectors have been instructed to facilitate the certificate-issuing process, take daily reviews of the process as it progresses, and submit a report at the earliest.
To cope with the large number of pending applications, the government has directed offices concerned to organise special camps to alleviate the ordeal faced by parents and students. The Chief Minister also did his bit to make matters easier for students last Monday, exempting those born and schooled in Maharashtra from having to present domicile certificates.
The Other Side
A government official told MiD DAY on condition of anonymity, "The Mantralaya should give us a specific list
of the documents which we should verify before issuing a certificate. No employee wants to face the
brunt later on for issuing an erroneous certificate." The official added, "Besides, most of the local level offices are suffering from acute staff crunch, as a result of which they fail to churn out all the certificates on time."
