Urban Development and Town and Country Planning Minister Sudhir Sharma said the state government would bring amendments in the H.P Town and Country Planning Act during coming Vidhan Sabha session to regularize the deviations in the state based on the suggestions given by the people and public representatives. He said the necessary amendments would be made in the Act to give further relief to the people and simplifying the procedures.He was addressing after launching the citizen governance mobile App-HIM TCP of the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department to take vital services like online registration and building plan permission approvals to the fingertips of the people, here today. The App has been developed by CSM Technologies, Odisha which ensures easy and single point access to services and information on online registration and building plan approvals information along-with other functions of the department.Shri Sudhir Sharma said the launch of this App was a new milestone in citizen-centric governance which demonstrates the commitment of the State Government to take public services to the door steps of the citizens.
He said it was a major leap in citizen-centric governance efforts of the department, which would not only improve performance of the authorities but also ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency. The department would be able to take action on different issues like monitoring new and pending applications, No Objection Certificates, handling payments, issuing notifications and scheduled inspections. The citizens would be able to check the status of their applications and pay fees online. Besides, the professional architects and promoters would also be able to check status, pay fees and access information.He said the department had been consistently working to streamline its services as per the aspirations of the people. A similar App would also be developed soon for urban local bodies to make available the birth and death certificates, NOCs and payment of electricity, water bills and taxes.
Shri Sudhir Sharma said the State Government had taken suggestions of the citizens and public representatives to regularize the deviations and amended Bill would be introduced in the Assembly Session. He said stringent provisions would be incorporated into the TCP Act to check further deviations and avoid any more need to bring amendments in the Act.The Minister announced to provide tablets to the officers of the TCP departments so as to enable them to work efficiently on the online services of the department.Additional Chief Secretary, TCP, Smt. Manisha Nanda said the launch of this App was a new chapter in good governance as the people of the State would be immensely benefited with quality services. She said the department had brought various modifications in its functioning since last few years by expanding digital empowerment. The online services would go a long way in reducing time and money as people would no longer need to visit offices or banks to get their works done.
She said the department was working on a plan to develop more towns of the State and three new offices had been opened to facilitate the people. She added the plan had also been approved for Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Special Area.Director, Town and Country Planning Shri Sandeep Kumar detailed about the benefits of the new App. He said the department was receiving all applications online and these were being dealt online in a time bound manner. This had helped in bringing efficiency and accountability in the functioning of the department.He said HIM TCP App could be downloaded from the website of the department and from Google Play as well.MLA Shri Balbir Verma, Chairman, Wool Federation Shri Raghuvir Thakur, Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Shrikant Baldi, Director, Urban Development Capt. J.M. Pathania and other senior officers were present on the occasion.