Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that the government is planning to develop a database — comprehensive citizen information bank — and a mobile application, to improve accountability among employees and responsibility among people.
He hoped that such an information system would check irregularities in the implementation of welfare schemes and diversion of commodities meant for the public distribution system, besides keeping a tab on the movements of suspicious individuals. Using such an app on experimental basis, the Commercial Taxes Department had already shown good results in finding tax evaders, he said.
Review meeting
At a review meeting held here on Saturday with Commissioner of Police M. Mahender Reddy, Additional Commissioner Y. Nagi Reddy, Mee Seva Commissioner G.T. Venkateshwar Rao, IT experts Sridhar Reddy and Jeevan Reddy, he said the plan was not to restrict use of such an application to taxes and police departments, but also extend them to all departments linked to people, besides employees.
The app would help create a sense of accountability and responsibility as every employee and citizen would know that he/she was being watched for all his/her public actions, the Chief Minister said. The previous governments failed to utilise technology properly, ultimately resulting in lack of transparency in government departments.
The Chief Minister said the objective of the government was to offer good governance by bringing into use new apps. He explained that people would cooperate with any change if it benefited them. Compiling information of suspicious elements would help analyse it when needed.
Asking the departments to use apps (new technologies) for improving their functioning, he claimed that Google screen map used by him for micro-level monitoring of projects was highly useful. Usage of comprehensive database with the help of new technologies would help in saving public money from misuse, in identifying beneficiaries for government schemes and during natural calamities and accidents, he said.
Citing an example of how people would welcome change after initial reluctance, he said cordon-and-search operations were opposed in the beginning, but now they are getting requests from people to conduct searches in their areas.
