Meet The Man Who Made AAP's Doorstep Delivery System A Reality

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), founded in 2012 by IITian and now Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, recently launched a doorstep delivery system of public services on September 9 2018.

The brain behind this system and the chief advisor of the CM, Gopal Mohan, in an exclusive interview with The Logical Indian, that the idea emerged when they realised that the digitalisation of services had many loopholes. He added, “After we started the online services, we realised only 10% of the public used the services. They were hesitant to use the online platform. Thus, we came up with the idea of sending officials to everyone’s doorstep that could assist the public in filling forms and fee collection.”

Who is Gopal Mohan?

Gopal Mohan, a social activist, joined Aam Aadmi Party as the Anti-corruption advisor in 2012 with a salary of only Rs 1. Before joining AAP, he was a part of the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement. After Swati Maliwal resigned as the advisor to the CM, Mohan took up her role. Hailing from New Delhi, Mohan’s father was in the Ministry of Agriculture.

In the interview with The Logical Indian, an engineering graduate from Maharishi Dayanand University, Gopal Mohan also talked about his education and life.

Doorstep Delivery Service

Doorstep Delivery of Public Services was the newest launch by the AAP government in the capital. After months of debates, deliberations and rejections, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government has launched its doorstep delivery scheme which aims to deliver 40 public services to people’s doorsteps.

The service basically provides all kinds of assistance for any public service at the doorstep. The government will provide 40 public services, spanning eight departments which vary from marriage registration, caste and income domicile to water connections, driving licenses, pension schemes, permanent IDs for disabled, land record reports and registration of construction workers by paying a nominal fee of Rs 50. Arvind Kejriwal called this move as a beginning of a new era. He also said that “This is a revolutionary change. Now, people will not waste time and money for multiple trips to the government offices. They just have to dial 1076 and request for the service they want.”

In the interview, Gopal Mohan said, “After we launched the online program, it was quite clear that since people lacked basic amenities like printer or scanner, the program was not being used by a lot of people. Net banking was also another issue. Therefore we came up with this idea that did everything at the home itself, even the biometric scan.”

He mentions that this was an initiative that was planned in 2015, right after AAP came to power in Delhi. “The delay that happened in finally implementing this scheme was because of the problems we were facing with certain officers. Then the issue of the L-G came up,” he said.

Other projects

The Aam Aadmi Party have also proposed a CCTV project for Delhi. The project has proposed 1.4 lakh cameras with 2000 cameras in each constituency. The entire budget allocated to the project is Rs.571.40 Cr.

“To reduce the crime rate, this seemed to be a good idea. We used the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for the project which reduced the entire cost of the project,” said Gopal Mohan. Mohan also said, “If we don’t face any interventions this time by the LG, this project can soon be on the floor in coming two-three months.

The Free Wi-Fi in the national capital was a key poll promise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during the 2015 Assembly elections. The same has been put to fast track in the light of the upcoming election.

While speaking to The Logical Indian, Gopal Mohan said, “The free Wifi is also one of the major projects that may come into the limelight in the coming months.” When we talked about promoting the good works of a government, he said “I don’t want any kind of publicity for my work. I joined politics to work for the people and I will keep on doing so.”

Also Read: Interview: “When I Joined, DCW Office Seemed Like A Kitty Party Location,” Swati Maliwal, DCW Chief