Successful special camps organised in Chennai and its surroundings in December 2015 to issue duplicate documents to flood-affected people could serve as blueprint for the Tamil Nadu government in the aftermath of cyclone Michaung. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has announced special camps would be launched on December 11 in Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur. The camps would begin in Chennai on December 12.
The 2015 “single window approach” model was recognised as a best practice by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in its report ‘Tamil Nadu Floods: Lessons Learnt and Best Practices’.
A week after the historic floods, then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had announced special camps for two weeks where applications for duplicate copies of documents, records and certificates would be received from the affected people and issued “within a week without collecting any fee”. These included vehicle RC Books, driving licence, ration card, pattas, property documents, etc. Various State government Departments and Central government organisations had participated in the camps run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The NDMA report was released when V. Thiruppugazh, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, was its Joint Secretary (Policy and Plan). The present DMK dispensation too had requisitioned his services to prepare a report on flood mitigation and management in Chennai.
The NDMA had noted that in 2015 the Principal Secretary (Administration) was appointed as the monitoring officer and other IAS officers were appointed as nodal officers to ensure smooth functioning of these camps held at the taluk level for issue of certificates to persons who lost them in the floods. Arrangements were also made to receive applications for replacement of such documents at Common Service Centres.
Back then, affected people had to apply for issuance of duplicate documents in the camps in requisite formats, which were made widely available. Notably, no FIRs for the lost documents were required to be filed in police stations. Applications were acknowledged (on a card), thoroughly verified by the respective departments and “duplicates were issued within two weeks”. Individuals were informed on their mobile numbers to collect copies of duplicate certificates/documents on their becoming ready for delivery.
A decentralised decision-making approach was adopted by nodal officers for taking on-the-spot decisions, the report recalled.
Government departments, particularly 11 major departments — Revenue, Civil Supplies, Census, Banks, Registration, Corporation of Chennai, Oil Corporation, Transport, School Education, District Differently Abled Welfare Office and Industrial Training Institutes of the Department of Technical Education — had participated in the exercise.
In Chennai, 51,654 applications were received and the camps were a major success. In Kancheepuram, the number of applications were 42,810 but 5,809 applications were rejected for procedural lapses or information mismatch. Of them, 4,112 applications for ration cards were rejected as many applicants had multiple ration cards. “Based on the inputs given by Fair Price Shops, only genuine applicants were issued duplicate ration cards,” the NDMA noted.
Besides, Village Administrative Officers helped people who did not know the survey number/patta number. Computers from taluk offices along with printers were brought to the camps to help people with the patta numbers. Applications were entertained even if the applicant’s original documents were registered in a different taluk. Applications were transmitted to the authority concerned where the original document was registered, duplicate was obtained and handed over to individuals.
