SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta stressed the importance of making the issuance of ‘Life Certificate’ online and bringing all other eligible services under the Auto-appeal system by June 15th.
Dr Mehta made these remarks while launching new online services of the Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD), specifically related to applying for licenses by Architects and Draftsmen in Municipal Corporations of Jammu/Srinagar and all the Municipalities across J&K.
Principal Secretary of H&UDD, Commissioner Secretary of GAD, Commissioner Secretary of IT, Commissioner of JMC, CEO of JaKeGA, and scientists from NIC, along with other concerned officers, were present either physically or virtually through video conferencing from Jammu.
The Chief Secretary commended the efforts of the IT Department and the local chapter of NIC for developing these services in-house with their own expertise and resources. He expressed satisfaction with the Department’s performance but emphasized the need for further progress in the future.
He advised the concerned officials to expedite the implementation of the auto-appeal feature on the national platform of Serviceplus. He urged them to onboard at least 100 services on this portal by next week and bring all eligible services under the Auto-appeal system by the 15th of the following month.
He also directed the incorporation of necessary improvements for the departmental websites, including upgrading content and utility, and ensuring compliance with the standards set under the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA). He urged them to improve their ratings by aligning all services and portals with the NeSDA guidelines, aiming for an optimum score of 1 within the specified timeframe.
The Commissioner Secretary of IT, Prerna Puri, informed the meeting that the launch of these 6 services of H&UDD increased the total number of online services offered by the Union Territory to 480. She mentioned that all these services have been linked with payment and SMS gateways to enhance convenience for applicants.
She further added that more services would be made available online as they have been identified for development, and in the coming weeks, the number of such services is expected to reach 500.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary also reviewed the progress made in the development of services such as online FIR registration, online billing of water connections, and other services.
He emphasized that offering services online and integrating them into the Auto-appeal system not only ensures timely delivery but also helps eliminate corruption and malpractices from government offices. He observed that with the auto-escalation system under PSGA in place, both the quality and delivery of services to the public would significantly improve, as evidenced by the statistics of services brought under this system during the past year or so. (KNO)
