Amid speculation about change in leadership, Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Thursday released a 150-page “Four Years of All Embracing Performance” report to showcase achievements of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State.
He highlighted the successful implementation of the Sakala scheme and said it would help bring down corruption and increase transparency in administration.
Terming Sakala as an “inclusive revolutionary scheme”, Mr. Gowda said the Odisha government had appreciated Karnataka’s Sakala Services Act, 2011, and decided to implement the same. Odisha Chief Secretary B.K. Patnaik on Wednesday held detailed discussions with Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath here.
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Giving details about the implementation of Sakala under the Karnataka Guarantee of Services of Citizens Act, 2011, Mr. Gowda said as on June 27, 2012, 47.37 lakh applications were received and 40.87 applications disposed of. Around one lakh applications are received daily under 151 services by 11 departments. He said Sakala would be extended to all departments, including the State Secretariat.
Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S. Suresh Kumar said in the month of May, 11 departments received 15.52 lakh applications and disposed of 11.89 lakh. The defaulting rate for the State was mere 1.09 per cent. The defaulting rate in April was 1.41 per cent.
Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Mandya scored high marks with default percentage of 0.13, 0.36 and 0.54 respectively. Districts such as Gulbarga with defaulting percentage of 2.70 secured last rank among 30 districts. Other districts that performed poorly were Bidar, Raichur, Chikmagalur, Yadgir and Bangalore Rural.
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The Revenue department alone disposed of 63.35 per cent of applications, followed by Transport (15.07 per cent), Commercial Tax (13.78 per cent), Urban Development, including BBMP (4.75 per cent) and Home Department (3.03 per cent).
In the Revenue Department, the most of the applications pertained to issue of caste certificates (65 percent) followed by income certificates (29 per cent) and residency certificates (5 per cent). In the case of Transport Department, most of the petitions related to Learners’ License (38 per cent), registration of vehicles (41 per cent) and driving licence (29 per cent).
A total of 85 per cent of applications in the Commercial Tax Department pertained to issue of ‘Form D Declarations’ while 72 per cent applicants sought birth and death certificates in the Health Department.
However, a field study conducted by IIMB’s Centre for Public Policy in Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district noted that the level of awareness of Sakala was minimal, with majority of the citizens unaware of the scheme and unable to identify the symbol and caption, said the Sakala report card.
The Chief Minister noted that the government successfully conducted Global Agri-Business and Food Processing Summit in December last in Bangalore, National Youth Festival in Mangalore and Global Investors Meet – 2012 in Bangalore and had taken several investor-friendly measures.
Quoting a survey conducted by an agency in attracting investments, he said Karnataka secured 79th place in the world, while Bangalore ranked 16th among the 20 top competitive cities of the globe.
A total of 8.46 crore tourists visited the State during 2011-12, an increase of over 70 per cent compared with the previous year, Mr Gowda said.