Soon, the citizen services offered at the State Secretariat level will be brought under Sakala. That’s not all, come March 31, 2013, all Sakala services will be made available online.
This was announced by S. Suresh Kumar, Minister for BWSSB, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, after 114 new services, including 12 offered by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), were included under Sakala here on Friday. With this, 265 services are now offered under Sakala.
He said that since Sakala was launched on April 2, 1.25 crore applications (at 10 a.m., Friday) for various services have been received from the citizens. Of these, 1.22 crore applications have been disposed of.
He said that other States, including Bihar and Orissa, had sent teams to study the Sakala scheme and its successful implementation in the State to replicate it in their States. “What is more, Manish Mudgal, Additional Secretary, DPAR, is going to Bangladesh on invitation to help them implement Sakala there. The Union government is keen on setting up a citizens’ charter at the national level, and a team was in the State recently to study our system. Karnataka’s charter will be a model for the national citizens’ charter,” he added.
Bangalore South MP H.N. Ananth Kumar said that though other States had similar versions of Sakala, none offered so many citizens’ services. He stressed the need to have a citizens’ charter at the national level, besides passing of the Lokpal Bill. He claimed that the Union government was being indifferent to the needs of the State. “Both Bangalore North MP D.B. Chandre Gowda and I will raise this issue on behalf of the State at Parliament’s Winter Session that will be held soon,” he said.
Minister for Home and Transport R. Ashok, who is district in-charge, said that with Sakala, citizens no longer have to run from pillar to post for essential services from the various departments. “The BJP government has received a lot of brickbats from all quarters. They even labelled Vidhana Soudha ‘Nidhana (slow) Soudha’. I would like to tell these detractors that this unique scheme is in place only because of the State government,” he said.
Mr. Chandre Gowda said that the scheme should get wide publicity. He said that with the implementation of Sakala, the number of people approaching elected representatives seeking help with their applications had come down.
Bangalore Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy, Deputy Mayor L. Srinivas, Additional Chief Secretary Subir Hari Singh, BDA chairman C.S. Kedar, principal secretary of Urban Development Department Amita Prasad, BDA Commissioner T. Sham Bhat, and Mission Director (Sakala) Shalini Rajneesh were present.
To know the list of services offered under Sakala, visit www.sakala.kar.nic.in.
