In order to facilitate the public in interacting with various government departments/agencies the government has decided to establish Public Facilitation and Service Centers, named ‘Asani Markaz’. The services offered by many federal and provincial level organizations are combined under one roof so that the public at large may get benefit from these centers. There are number of departments in the public sector which are involved in the provision of services to citizens. Each of the department is providing one or more services using different set of processes which may be automated or manual. Integrating of all such services under one roof where citizens could come in and enjoy world class service delivery without having to visit different officers within the department serves as an inspiration for the idea of Facilitation Centers. The idea shifts departmental paradigm from department centric approach to citizen centric approach.
Aasani Markaz is meant to integrate governmental services including, issuance of birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, divorce certificate, character certificate, vehicle registration, token tax collection, vehicle transfer of ownership, fard, learning driving license, traffic fine collection, domicile, issuance of CNIC, NADRA and route permit for the ease of the citizens under one platform.
To make the process further hassle free, an SMS will be sent to the citizens on their numbers to inform them about the status of their application. Chairman Planning & Development Board has been directed to act as a focal person for the whole project and the commissioners are directed to identify suitable places for establishment of Facilitation and Service Centers in each tehsil.
The ideas of setting up one window cells within specific government departments are not new but spreading such a one stop shop across departments and provision of multiple services to general public has never been tried in this part of the world earlier.
Setting up facilitation Centers (Aasani Markaz) across Punjab will help government achieve following:
- Empowerment of citizens by providing easy access to public services
- Effective, efficient, prompt and hassle free as well as corruption free service delivery
- Greater accountability and transparency
- Extending access to un-served groups
- Simplifying transaction procedures
- Minimizing costs to citizens
- Minimizing cost to government (internal efficiency)
- Increased public satisfaction index
Service delivery cycle at Facilitation Center is illustrated below:
How It Works?
Apart from ease of access, provision of transparent service delivery as per the industry standards of customer servicers. The project also focuses on providing key services for extended hours with separate areas for male/female and special elderly service protocol.
