Panaji: Bringing grassroots governance into the digital age, the Goa government has announced a sweeping overhaul of village panchayat services — moving almost all of them online in a phased manner.
Speaking on the floor of the Goa Legislative Assembly on Monday evening, State Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho said the shift to digital platforms will ensure that people no longer have to physically visit panchayat offices for basic services.
“From income certificates to house repair permissions, nine major services are already available online. We are working towards 100 per cent digitisation of all panchayat services,” Godinho said.
Goa has 186 village panchayats across both the districts — North and South.
Godinho said that the services like issuance of residence, income and character certificates, NOCs for water and electricity connections, registration and renewal of trade and establishment licences and permissions for house repairs are already available online.
The minister said that from next month onwards, the proceedings of the panchayat meetings and certified copies of the resolutions adopted by the panchayats would be available online.
“This will allow any citizen to view the decisions taken by their local panchayats, strengthening transparency and accountability,” the minister told the House.
He acknowledged that some delays were faced in hosting services online due to a contractor failing to deliver on time, but assured the House that the government is now accelerating the process.
The government plans to launch online services in five village panchayats initially, adding 20–30 more every month thereafter, Godinho said.
The minister said that put together records from all the panchayats, the state will digitise nearly 10 lakh house tax records and eight lakh trade licence records.
He said that in future, the services including house tax payments, issuance of construction licences, occupancy certificates, and applications for lease rent will be added to the online portal.
“I had promised in the last session that there would be reforms to bring more digitisation and streamline procedures at the panchayat level. We are on track to deliver that,” Godinho said.
Speaking further, the minister also announced the rollout of an AI-based facial recognition attendance system across all village panchayats from August 1.
This system, which has already undergone a soft trial, will be supported by geo-tagging to ensure that staff attendance is marked only from designated locations, he said.
“If attendance is marked from outside the designated area, the employee must provide a valid reason. This will help improve punctuality and discipline in the functioning of panchayat staff,” he said.
