After broad-basing e-governance, the State government is now set to launch mobile (phone) governance under which citizens can seek services from its different departments either through SMS or interactive voice response system via mobiles.
Announcing this at a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs S. Suresh Kumar said Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar would launch the mobile-governance system on Thursday.
To begin with, some of the select services, which are already part of e-governance, would be taken up for the mobile platform.
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The details regarding the schemes that will be available under mobile governance and the manner in which citizens could seek them would be announced at the time of the launch, he said.
Pointing out that almost every family, irrespective of their economic and social status, has mobile phones,
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Mr. Kumar said the government was trying to use this swift and convenient mode of communication to ensure that citizens get the required services without hassles.
This mobile-enabled service-delivery platform has been developed by the Department of e-governance. This also helps in tracking the status of applications under Sakala.
Sakala hailed
Meanwhile, the swiftness and efficiency of disposal of applications under Sakala — the system that prescribes deadlines for delivery of services — has been improving constantly every month in the State.
While 96.25 per cent of applications had been disposed of in October, it increased to 97.35 per cent in November and 97.62 per cent in December.
Monthly data
This has been established by analysis of monthly reviews of Sakala implementation.
Mr. Suresh Kumar, who is spearheading the Sakala initiative, told presspersons after releasing the monthly review report of Sakala for December that 1,56,55,858 applications seeking service delivery had been received till Wednesday morning under the Sakala scheme from the date of its inception.
Of them, 1,53,65,213 applications had been disposed of.
Ramanagaram district stands first for disposal of applications under Sakala in December followed by Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada districts. Bijapur is in the bottom of the pool.
Mr. Kumar said a team of about 30 senior IAS officers from different States, who are in Bangalore to undergo a weeklong training at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, has hailed Karnataka for the effective implementation of Sakala. According to them, the IT support and micro supervision had helped in making Sakala a success in Karnataka, compared with other States.
Foreign varsity’s interest
The University of Chicago is carrying out a preliminary evaluation study of the implementation of Sakala here.
Team visit
A team will visit some of the districts to get feedback from service-seekers.