Chief Secretary reviews the progress of IT initiatives

SRINAGAR: With an aim to further ease the life of common citizens through the medium of e-initiatives for greater transparency and door-step delivery of various government services, Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta chaired a detailed review of the IT Department on monday.

At the sidelines of the review, he also launched various IT initiatives including dedication of five (05) new online services to the public, unveiling the JK instance of Open Government Data(OGD) platform, the Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) and Digital Internship programme 2.0.

The review meeting cum launch event was attended by Commissioner/Secretary, IT Department; CEO, JKeGA; State Informatics Officer, NIC besides other senior officers of IT Department.

At the outset of the review, Chief Secretary appreciated the efforts of Team J&K for achieving the milestone of securing the top spot amongst States/UTs with respect to the no. of e-services available to the citizens. At the same time, he impressed that the achievement should motivate everyone to further enhance the convenience of general public through identification of more area/services that need to be provided on e-mode.

He emphasized that e-services have brought about efficiency in the functioning of all the departments and are a very potent tool in realizing the J&K administration aim of “BhrashtacharMukt J&K”. The e-initiatives are also being appreciated by public at large for their inherent hassle-free, transparent nature. He urged the department to continue its efforts in expanding the e- services portfolio, suggesting the incorporation of new services and set a target of reaching 1500 e-services.

During the review of e-office, Dr Mehta directed compilation of comprehensive reports highlighting the backlog of e-files within various government departments for swift disposal of files. He stressed the importance of identifying users who exhibit suboptimal file disposal rates. Additionally, he underscored the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, such as voice-to-text converters in e-office operations, and assessed the progress of Digital DPR and Virtual Tour initiatives.

In order to sensitize the general public about their right of public service delivery in a timely manner and to enhance empowerment & transparency, he directed incorporation of PSGA timeline in the SMS sent to people on submitting e-service application before the end of this month.

Meanwhile Chief Secretary while unveiling the JK instance of the Open Government Data (OGD) Platform, the Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP), and the Digital Internship Programme 2.0, called these steps towards digital transformation as creation of new horizons in J&K which is a testament to enhanced transparency.

Speaking on the occasion Commissioner Secretary, IT, Prerna Puri informed the meeting that this year the Department is taking in a batch of 17 interns for training under ‘Digital Internship Program 2.0′. She said that this program aims at improving their acumen to understand the functioning of government services and processes better.