Pune: Citizens using the state govt’s Aaple Sarkar portal to apply for certificates and access other govt services will face a disruption for four days from Friday evening as Maharashtra Information Technology Corporation Ltd (MahaIT) undertakes a data centre migration and system upgrade, officials said on Friday.The services will become unavailable from 4 pm on Oct 16 and are expected to resume on Oct 20. MahaIT is, however, trying to restore them by Monday evening, officials said. The shutdown will affect govt websites, portals, applications and citizen services, including those accessed by village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs).The disruption could delay applications for income, domicile, caste and other certificates, besides document uploads and pending online transactions. Applicants who need these documents for admissions, govt schemes, hospital-related work or other official procedures may have to wait until the portal is restored. “We are upgrading the system for better services and have sought time for the work,” a MahaIT official said. The official added that the department was trying to resume services at the earliest, particularly as applications were likely to increase after Dasara.MahaIT has advised citizens, govt departments and other users to complete urgent applications, document submissions and pending transactions before 4 pm on Friday. The state IT department said the data centre migration and technical upgrades were aimed at improving the performance and stability of digital services and strengthening the security and reliability of the underlying infrastructure.Citizens, meanwhile, said they hoped the upgrade would address the portal’s persistent technical problems. “The portal is very slow and there are several technical issues and glitches. Though we are supposed to be able to obtain documents online from the comfort of our homes, the system is slow,” said Seema Jadhav, who was seeking an income certificate for hospital-related work.
