Sarat from Bangalore has not been able to find time to pick up his ration card. But, he keep getting SMSes from the department concerned reminding him to do so.
Jumped a traffic signal? You can check if you have any traffic violation case pending against you on the BangaloreOne website. If you discover that you do, you can make an online fine payment. There is no chance of paying a smaller bribe to a traffic constable and getting away with it this time.
While Karnataka has been embroiled in some of the biggest corruption scams in the country— such as the mining debacle in Bellary — a wave of internet-based initiatives is succeeding in adding some lustre to state’s reputation for good governance.
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Wave of initiatives
Sakala, BangaloreOne, Bhoomi, and Nemmadi are all e-governance initiatives spearheaded by the Karnataka government that have slowly begun to change the nature of transparency and governance in the state, and are beginning to make an impact on ordinary citizens. “E-procurement and e-tender have cut out political interference in the procurement process and there’s no intervention from MLAs that used to be seen earlier. This should ensure better quality of public works,” said I S N Prasad, principal secretary, information technology, bio-technology and science & technology, Karnataka.
There’s a sense of urgency on the corridors of power and government offices today. Not long ago, people habitually chased officials and files. Now, it’s the other way around, with officials chasing people. Sakala, or the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act (2011), which was kick-started in April this year, has begun to check corruption and harassment of citizens by officials across departments, and has even managed to root out touts outside government offices who promise to get your job done for you for a fee.
Since its inception, the Sakala helpline has received over 100,000 queries. You can call to find out the procedural queries or delay in the delivery of services of the government under the Sakala scheme. Here’s how it works: Whenever a request for a particular service is made under Sakala, the applicant first receives an acknowledgement slip with a unique number. This ensures that the request for service will be processed within specified period. Sakala currently takes care of 151 services of 11 departments. Just last month, the government decided to add 118 new services to its existing ones.
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Transparency and accountability
Today, if someone doesn’t get the service one has requested for, one can demand compensation from the official responsible for not delivering it within a certain time frame. It has made officials very alert about being monitored, reinforcing the notion that they are accountable to a time-bound approach, with a defaulter liable to be pulled up at the highest level. “Any official can be pulled up. The system monitors it so closely and all are made to feel accountable. Till now, there was only democratisation of governance through voting; People had no say in the administration. Now, there is a democratisation of administration,” said Shalini Rajneesh Goyal, secretary, department of administrative reforms, and Sakala mission director.
The ultimate challenge, though, according to an official who did not want to be named, is adding medical services under it. “The chief reason for this is the reluctance of doctors to feed data on to the network,” says an official in the department. Sakala is now the flagship of the Karnataka government’s e-governance initiative. While 22 states have passed similar acts, Karnataka has been among the most successful in implementing it.
“We were able to do it because we had the information techonogy-enabled environment. We are already where others are yet to reach. Since most departments were computerised, it was easier to build on the infrastructure and, hence, easier to implement,” said Goyal. The second phase of the programme has started with SMS services commencing on October 10.
However, the most visible symbol of e-governance initiatives in Bangalore is BangaloreOne. The service, launched in April 2005, now allows one to file job applications, pay life insurance premia, or even check online if one has any fine outstanding for traffic violations. This means no more waiting in long queues multiple times in a month for paying bills. The project has now been extended to nine additional cities in the state under Karnataka One.
The earliest of these e-governance initiatives, which started in the late 1990s, is Bhoomi (meaning land), which deals with the crucial area of land records. Transparency in land record management takes away discretion from civil servants at operating levels. Bhoomi allows for online delivery and management of land records in Karnataka. The Revenue Department in Karnataka, with the technical assistance from the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Bangalore, has built and operationalised the Bhoomi system throughout the state.
Bhoomi has computerised 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7 million farmers in the state and has reduced the power of public officials by introducing provisions for recording a mutation request online. Farmers can now access the database and are empowered to follow up. In the Bhoomi project, a printed copy of the record of Rights, Tenacy and Crop (RTC) expand can be obtained online by providing the name of the owner or plot number at computerised land record kiosks in 177 taluk offices, for a fee of Rs 15.
A second computer screen faces the clients to enable them to see the transaction being performed. A farmer can check the status of a mutation application on touch-screen kiosks. If the revenue inspector does not complete the mutation within 45 days, a farmer can approach a senior officer with his grievance.
Old habits die hard
These are all impressive strides in e-governance, but if there is one complaint, it is that Sakala is yet to gain large-scale traction. People are still to be completely familiarised with the system. Currently, government departments aggressively monitor and chase documents or applications through the SMS system. There are many instances, particularly in cases involving driving licences and the transport department, where people are repeatedly intimated via SMS. Pay your fee and avail of your service, say government officials today, but sometimes citizens find it hard to adapt to this new world. Laments Goyal: “They (people) take their own sweet time. It’s applicable to us and not to citizens. Chase is now in the reverse manner.”