The government on Wednesday announced a service to digitise the process of attestation of documents for those going abroad, so that they are spared the trouble of visiting government offices for the purpose.
'e-Sanad' -- an initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in association with two other ministries -- will initially be hosting school leaving certificates with the help of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In subsequent phases, the portal will also host documents from central universities.
'Parinaam Manjusha', the CBSE repository of documents like mark-sheets and migrations certificates, has been integrated with e-Sanad for this purpose.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said she collaborated with the ministries of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Electronics and Information Technology to execute the task, which was close to her heart.
"Every individual who goes abroad needs to get tens of certificates attested... There was such corruption that if anyone in Bangalore (Bengaluru) wanted to get his documents attested in Delhi to go abroad, there would be touts to do this for him for money," Swaraj told media.
Even increasing the number of centres where one could get his certificates attested was not enough, Swaraj said, adding that she wanted "a solution under which no one was physically required to go to the office and carry papers".
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar lauded the endeavour, saying he too had been a victim of red-tapism. Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad hailed the move as a step towards making India digital.
Regarding formalities for passport, Swaraj said there were rules which were "impractical, obsolete, unnecessary and anachronistic". She said the number for passport applications had increased by 30 per cent since the simplification of process.
CBSE Chairman R.K. Chaturvedi said individuals seeking certificates through e-Sanad for 2016 would be able to access them free of cost. To get older certificates, one would have to pay Rs 100.
He said e-Sanad would be a helpful even for employers, who would be able to verify the potential employees' documents through it.
--IANS
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