Information Madness

Mumbaikars, here is a great news for you all. BMC - Bombay Municipal Corporation which is now known as Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has just launched an e-governance portal http://www.mcgm.gov.in/, the Citizen's Portal.

Mayor Shubha Raul, Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray, Bharatiya Janata Party Mumbai President Prakash Mehta, State Chief Secretary Johny Joseph and Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak were present at the launch.

So now citizens from Mumbai can obtain important documents such as birth and death certificates, licences and receipts of property and water tax bills.

"The BMC provides more services than the state of Delhi. This is why e-governance is so important, and these services are available 24x7x365,’’ said Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak. Oh boy! Wouldn't this spark a fire between Delhi and Mumbai Municipalities? (via: Tech2)

The site is great informational portal and has an option to see the whole site in Marathi. It has different sections and a special citizens center where you can pay your water bills, pay Octroi, pay Property Tax and botain birth or death certification. All you need to do is, apply online and there is section where you can check your application status as well.

Did I mention that the site also works great in FireFox. So atleast MCGM has kept this in mind that it should be cross browser compatible. Few points that I noticed are

• A section which says "Sister Cities" on the front page. The list includes Berlin(Germany), London(U.K.), Los Angeles(USA) etc. How come these cities are Sister cities of Mumbai ??
• The site has a "Logon" section but doesn't have any way to create a new registration. So how can a person login ?

But overall, its a great job by the MCGM. Check out the website and share your experiences.