New portal for all verifications

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is going ahead with plans to create an online citizens’ portal to allow online background checks of people for passport issue, marriage and job verifications and even checks on household help. Putting online all judicial records, forensic data and jail records to give the police and security agencies easy and quick access will be part of the key initiative. This at present take days or even months, slowing down the pace of work, something which is totally unacceptable to the Modi government. The PM had told top officers that March 2016 was the deadline to roll out the CCTNS project and online citizens’ portal.

Mr Modi had directed officers of key ministries like home and finance at the Pragati video conference last month to get cracking and ensure the new facilities are rolled out in six months to speed up his government’s performance and make Digital India a reality in the coming months.

Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha will review the project at a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries on Friday, to be attended, among others, by new home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

“Once the CCTNS and online portal takes off, one click will be required for citizens to apply for passport verification, check its status; companies can get background verification done for jobs and government departments can access judicial records in a streamlined and timely manner, increasing efficiency tenfold,” a top government official said.