CS for robust grievance redressal mechanism
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 11: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has directed all the departments to conduct regular audit of websites in order to thwart potential cyber threats. Moreover, Common Service Centers will come up within the Government offices to provide comprehensive guidance to the general public.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that while holding deliberations on the cyber security with the Administrative Secretaries in a meeting held few days back, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo directed all the departments to update their websites on regular basis so as to thwart potential cyber threats.
“In alignment with this directive, the IT Department was instructed to assign National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA) the task of conducting regular audits of all departmental websites in order to establish a centralized system for vigilant monitoring and enhanced security”, sources informed, adding “additionally, departments were also directed to enable access on Government websites to relevant information only”.
“A website security audit is a process that assesses website/application for vulnerabilities and loopholes. The audit scans website and its server for existing or potential weaknesses that hackers can exploit”, sources said, adding “as per the Information Technology Act, it is mandatory to have security audit of all the application and web services to be eligible for hosting in State Data Centre”.
According to the sources, the departments are already under direction to get security audit of the website/application done from CERT-In, Government of India certified empanelled agency and submit “safe to host” certificate to SDC team.
Meanwhile, to facilitate easy access for the general public, deliberations were held on the opening of the accessible facilitation centres for providing online services.
“In this regard, setting up of Common Service Centers (CSCs) within Government offices under the supervision of the respective in-charges is being explored in order to provide a comprehensive guidance to the general populace, ensuring they are well-informed and adept in utilizing the diverse array of online services provided by the Government”, sources said while disclosing that Chief Secretary has directed that the Information Technology Department in collaboration with concerned Deputy Commissioners should identify the suitable Government offices where such Common Service Centres will be set up.
It is pertinent to mention here that Common Service Centre Scheme provides a centralized collaborative framework for delivery of services to citizens besides ensuring systemic viability and sustainability of the scheme.
While deliberating on the importance of quality grievance redressal, the Chief Secretary, as per the sources, stressed upon the need for the development of a robust grievance redressal mechanism.
In this regard, the Chief Secretary impressed upon the Secretary, Public Grievances, to undertake an analytical study of available data, explore the mechanism for digitization of all public grievances in a structured manner, categorise grievances, develop feedback mechanism and a common portal for all grievances received in different offices in consultation with the IT Department/NIC.
Besides, it was directed that the available manpower at two call centres—Jammu and Srinagar, be strengthened appropriately, so as to improve the rate and quality of disposal. Furthermore, the Chief Secretary directed for sticking to timelines with regard to Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) and to undertake stringent steps against the violations, if any.
According to the sources, Chief Secretary has further directed that the follow-up along with the analysis of the data/grievances complied during the Back to Village programs should be done on priority.
For this, proper analysis/AI tools may be developed so that the genuine grievances are resolved on time. Besides, deliberations were also held with respect to the staggering schedule of the visiting officers over a period of time, wherein the visiting officers may schedule the visits themselves keeping in view their official engagements, sources said.
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