Chief Secretary takes overview of IT initiatives for public utilities and services

SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo on Thursday chaired a meeting of different stakeholders to take firsthand appraisal of different IT interventions contemplated by the Health, Jal Shakti and other Departments to make their services reliable and accessible to the public.

Besides ACS Jal Shakti and ACS Forest, the meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, PDD; Commissioner Secretary, IT; Secretary Health; Secretary Revenue; Secretary Planning; MD, JJM; MD, HADP; SIO, NIC; representatives of BISAG-N and other concerned officers.

Outstation officers participated in the meeting through video conferencing.

During the meeting, the Chief Secretary had a detailed discussion with the stakeholders about the technological interventions that could bring efficiency in the working of their Departments and make them more accessible to the end users.

In order to make the process more fruitful and time-bound, the Chief Secretary advised that each Department should first identify the problem statement to develop the respective workflows for creating solutions with utilization of modern technology available in the market.

He further enjoined upon the concerned Departments to collate the requisite contents for uploading and its integration with the system. He also asked them to look for available options developed elsewhere so that same could be replicated here.

Besides this, the Chief Secretary took this occasion to impress upon the concerned to constitute a dedicated team of professionals to work in close coordination with BISAG-N for commencing their work instantly with regular follow-up by the higher-ups in the Department.

Regarding the concept of developing IoT/SCADA based Smart Water Measurement & Monitoring system, the ACS Jal Shakti Department, Shaleen Kabra, apprised the meeting that such arrangement should address the concerns of end users along with help the administration in making right decisions.

He revealed that this IT initiative is aimed at ensuring timely and adequate water supply to consumers along with addressing the disruptions and maintenance of water supply schemes in an automated fashion.

As far as the upgradation of G2C services are concerned, the Commissioner Secretary, IT informed the meeting that the Department had identified the 50 most sought out services by the public to create end-to-end digitized solution for these in collaboration with BISAG-N.

Secretary H&ME, Dr Syed Abid divulged the concept of the Department to manage all the medical services for both patients and medical professionals through IT-based SEHAT application.

It was given out that this application aims at extending every kind of support to the patients in making registrations, taking appointments, finding diagnostic facilities along with access to tele-medicine, Information about surgical procedures, specialities, blood banks, De-addiction facilities drug stores, providing health alerts and other dozens of facilities and information databases relevant to the Department.

The meeting also took appraisal of the working of recently launched Samadhan portal developed for public grievances management and redressal.

Secretary, Public Grievances Department, Aijaz Asad apprised the meeting about the status of grievance redressal through this application. He also highlighted certain areas which needs intervention from BISAG-N for making the system more efficient, prompt and user-friendly for general public.