DMC trade licence system to go digital

Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) is all set to go digital vis-à-vis issuing and verification of trade licence for around 20,000 trade licence holders.
Informing this to media at a press conference here Tuesday, DMC administrator W. Manpai Phom said the decision to digitise trade licence was taken after consultations with various stakeholders such as Naga Council Dimapur(NCD), Business Association of Nagaland(BAN), Dimapur Urban Chairmen Council Federation (DUCCF), Dimapur GB Federation(DGBF), Dimapur Chamber of Commerce and Industry(DCCI), Dimapur Naga Women Hoho(DNWH) and Dimapur Naga Students’ Union(DNSU) on April 6.
Manpai said the DMC shared its plans and agenda with the civil society bodies and in return, they expressed appreciation at the initiative and also assured to fully cooperate and support DMC in this regard.
On the process of digitisation, Manpai explained that all DMC trade licence holders will have to visit the DMC office by April 30 to migrate their licences to digital format. He also cautioned that any licence holder failing to do so would have to register for new trade licence as their old licence would be revoked.
“All trade licence holders failing to migrate to digital format will be cancelled on April 30,” he stated.
On the objective of digitisation, Manpai said it was being done to streamline defaulters, since out of around 20,000 trade licence holders since 2006, only around 7,000 to 8,000 have renewed their licences. He said digitisation of trade licences would help DMC crack down on defaulters, as all those failing to renew their licences or not possessingone would be penalised as per law.
He said DMC issued trade licences for a period of 12 months only.
Regarding the validity of the digital trade licences, Manpai stated that revision of validity or amount to be charged for procuring trade licences was not discussed yet.
On the fee charged by DMC for acquiring a trade license, he said rates varied as per the business, ranging from Rs 1,100 to Rs 15,000.
Phom asserted that necessary changes had been made in the terms and conditions of the trade licence.
He urged all business establishments to migrate their trade licences to the digital format at the earliest so as to avoid revocation and cancelation. He warned that any licence holder failing to migrate to digital format before April 30 would have to register for fresh trade licence.
On the response from the business community to the new initiative, he claimed that DMC had so far receivedvery good response from them.
Referring to the failure of DMC in checking renewal of trade licences , given the fact that there had been around 20,000 trade licence holders in Dimapur since 2006, of which only 7,000 to 8,000 had renewed, Manpai explained that DMC has been trying its best to crack down on the defaulters. However, he admitted that it was quite difficult to manage all cases minutely since documentation was carried out manually.
He also said that digitisation of the licence would make the task of cracking down on defaulters easier for DMC.
Meanwhile, the CEO of DMC said the Council was planning to start a mass clean-up programme to clear all drains in Dimapur and that the programme would be taken up before the onset of monsoon.
He said several discussions had been held to find ways and means to improve waste collection system and that DMC would come up with a comprehensive plan to address the issue. He divulged that Dimapur generated around 74 tonne of waste every day.
Manpai said DMC has identified two wards – No. 11 (residential ward) and No. 19 (commercial ward) – to carry out new waste collection system as a pilot project.
He appealed to all individual and households to extend full cooperation to DMC to make Dimapur cleaner and greener.