Odisha officials to face music for accepting offline payments for municipal services

Bhubaneswar: Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department Principal Secretary G. Mathivathanan today reviewed the performance of online urban service delivery platform ‘SUJOG’, developed under the 5T initiative of the Odisha government.

The platform offers multiple options for online payments including payment through M-POS machines and integration with other digi-payment platforms, officials said.

At present, seven urban services like building plan approval, trade licence, property tax collection and assessment, water and sewerage tax collection and assessment, marriage registration certificate, finance & accounting and public grievance redressal system are being provided under the SUJOG platform throughout the state, they added.

In order to ensure hassle-free delivery of services and ease of living for the citizens, the H&UD department Principal Secretary has issued strict directions to all the Development Authorities, Urban Local Bodies, WATCO and PHEO to stop receipt of offline applications and payments forthwith.

The heads of all these institutions have been instructed to withdraw the receipt books from the field officials and cancel all the unused leafs to prevent any misuse. Besides, they have also been asked to submit monthly report declaring termination of receipt of offline applications and payments for all the services available under SUJOG, said the officials.

“The H&UD department Principal Secretary has warned that any deviation in this regard would be treated as a criminal offence,” they added.