Jubilant J&K: Technology-driven governance system ensuring transparency, accountability

SRINAGAR, MAY 13: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha -led administration has embarked on a mission to digitize all services to ensure a transparent, accountable, and responsive governance system.

The UT administration has given Information Technology Department the mandate of completing end-to-end digitization of all services, integrating all public services on a single platform besides developing a feedback mechanism for the same in the given timeframe.

More services were brought on the Rapid Assessment System (RAS) platform to continue top performance on NeSDA and become the number one performing UT among all states and UTs of the country.

J&K has launched many e-governance initiatives to promote transparency, accountability, and responsive working culture in departments. In this regard, the Mobile Application ‘Satark Nagrik’ and Departmental Vigilance Officers (DVO) Portal of J&K Anti-Corruption Bureau has been launched by Lieutenant Governor which is combating corruption to a great extent.

The ‘Satark Nagrik’ application has been developed with the purpose to facilitate the seamless flow of information about corruption and enable citizens to submit their grievances with ease and mobility. Any citizen having an android based device can download the application from the play store. A unique ID number will be allotted at the time of registration of grievance which later can be used to track the status of the grievance.

Similarly, the DVO portal has been designed to enable an online communication channel with the DVOs of various departments. In certain cases, the complaints are related to ongoing works, current recruitments and payments yet to be made against contracts, etc. By referring these matters to DVOs, violations and shortcomings can immediately be rectified and loss to the state exchequer can be prevented. Other measures of this system included an Electronic Vigilance Clearance System for furnishing vigilance clearances through electronic or online mode for all the government employees.

Also, UMANG’s unified mobile application for new-age governance is a multi-lingual mobile platform for providing ‘anytime-anywhere governance’. In sync with the vision of ‘APPKA MOBLE HAMARA DAFTAR,’ the Government of J&K is committed to providing citizen-centric services through the mobile mode. This will enhance the accessibility of services and add to the convenience of citizens while availing these services.

The services on the UMANG platform are end to end digitized and provide a one-stop solution to the citizens starting from the application for a service and its processing to receipt of certificates/permissions. The services being provided have been integrated with an online payment gateway and Rapid Assessment System (RAS) of digital feedback.

Several popular services like birth certificates, death certificates, rehri licenses, marriage certificates, income certificates, character certificates, dependent certificates, SC/ST RBA certificates, and related documents can be accessed by the public at https://web.umang.gov.in or by downloading the mobile app ‘UMANG’ which is available on ‘Andriod’ and ‘IOS’ platform.

With the adoption of the e-office, a simplified, responsive, effective, and transparent paperless working culture across all the departments is being achieved. With the implementation of the e-office initiative, the disposal rate of files has touched an all-time high of 96 percent. Besides, 305 heads of Departments are now in one office and E-files are accessible to all officials irrespective of their locations.

J&K is first among UTs in the e-office disposal of files. Currently, 180 services are online which have been linked with a feedback mechanism. All HoDs have been brought on the e-office portal while the “Annual Performance Reports’ of JK Administrative Services (JKAS) officers have been shifted to online mode on SPARROW Portal.

The ranking of UT of J&K has improved significantly and has achieved the number one rank among all the UTs in the NeSDA-2021. The UT Portal has higher compliance to the assessment parameters like accessibility, ‘Information Security and Privacy, ‘Content Availability’ and ‘Ease of Use’.

Further, J&K Integrated Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (JKIGRAMS) has been developed as an e-Governance initiative to provide a 24×7 platform to the citizens for redressal of their grievances. The JKIGRAMS Portal has been integrated with the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) of the Central Government.

Moreover, Under the ‘Mulaqaat Programme’, the citizens can interact directly with the Lieutenant Governor for seeking redressal of their grievances that have been filed on the JK grievance portal.