This official app is still in a trial stage and the complete version that is expected to be available in a week is set to be a utility that will not only allow its user to access information concerning government offices and services but also serve as a platform for the public to rate and review performances of government offices and for the district administration to make public announcements.
‘We Are Kannur’ is an e-Governance mobile app on the android platform, developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), that brings all aspects of Kannur onto one platform. Name any government office or department, you will find address and contact details of that in the app.
“But it is more than that. You can get details of top 10 activities in the district that a tourist or a visitor may be interested in, choose a tourism spot to visit, find a cause to support, get links to shop for handloom products of the district or to the Kannur Classroom, an initiative of the district administration to make learning a lot more easier and exciting for school students.
“The main objective of the app is to make government offices more accessible to the people and to create a platform for the public to send feedback on the performances of the government offices,” said District Collector Mir Mohamed Ali, who initiated the idea of launching such a comprehensive app.
Hitherto there was no system for the government to know about the behaviour, courtesy or politeness of staff in government offices, he told The Hindu. He added that the app allowed him personally to read the feedback from the public.
The rate and review system in the app allows a person to give her phone number, which can only be seen by the Collector. While favourable feedbacks can be used as badge of honour for the offices concerned; the district administration can initiate inquiry if there is consistently bad feedback about staff of any office.
Another feature of the app is its messaging system, which can send the district administration’s messages such as public announcements, declaration of school holidays and warnings. These messages will appear as notifications in the app.
“We could develop such a comprehensive app because the NIC Kannur has an app developing infrastructure and manpower,” said Andrews Varghese, NIC district officer.
The NIC Kannur being one of the four Mobile App Development Competency Centre of the NIC in the country, the NIC in the district was involved in so many app development activities at the national level as well, he added.
