Govt urges youth to promote use of self-attestation

New Delhi, Jul 2: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday urged the public, especially the youth, to promote the use of self-attested certificates, saying the decision to do away with attestation by gazetted officers and notaries was one of the key steps taken by the government.

The Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said a circular on self-attestation of documents had already been sent to the state governments and though most of them have responded positively, yet in many cases the information has still not fully percolated to the lower levels of administration.

He urged the state governments to encourage the practice of self-attestation. Singh appealed to the common people, particularly youth, to bear in mind that whenever they approach an office with documents, they should bring to the notice of the authorities that the government now allows self-attestation of certificates by the candidate himself.

Singh said that introduction of self-attested certificates was one of the most historic measures introduced by the central government soon after it took over.

"The decision was universally hailed both by administration as well as by public," a press release issued by the Personnel Ministry quoted him as saying. He called for use of self-attested certificates since this has been approved by the government for over last eight months.

"This revolutionary step not only lessened a lot of hardship faced by the youth applying for jobs or higher education but also conveyed a bigger symbolic message that the (Narendra) Modi government had the capacity to trust the youth of this country," the minister said.

Singh was speaking during a review meeting of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), under his charge, here today.

Recalling from his personal experience, the minister said he had personally been a witness to a number of hardships that the youth went through looking for a gazetted officer, a notary, etc., for attestation.

"Moreover, in certain remote areas of the country many a time, a gazetted officer or a notary was not readily available in the vicinity to perform the task of attestation," he said.

On occasions, there were also complaints that young aspirants had to shell out meagre amount in their pockets for accomplishing the task of getting the huge pile of certificates attested, Singh said.

This is particularly ironic in the present age of high technology and biometric facility, he observed and added that in certain areas and departments, however, where statutory, legal or security nature are involved, the earlier practice of getting attestation from an authorised authority has nonetheless been allowed to carry on.

During the review meeting, an assessment was also made of the number of other recent initiatives by DARPG which include introduction of a pension portal and new methods for ease in governance.

PTI