Post 5 August 2019 fate of Jammu and Kashmir has changed forever, from stone age to Digital age, from a non starter state to a fast striding UT, from RPC to IPC and this transformation has been going on consistently, in fact leaps and bounds as administration is trying it’s best to have Jammu and Kashmir in pace with rest of India. e-Governance has been the flagship initiative of the LG Administration with abandoning of annual Darbar move there by discarding the wasteful expenditure of 200 crore plus. Now throughout the year both Srinagar and Jammu Civil Secretariats are working. Both Central and UT Administrations are trying innovative ways like B2V and MTMP initiatives to bridge the gap between administration and public, delivering services at their doorsteps and latest attempt to further reduce the gap between citizens and officers is launching of Swagatam, an initiative by GoI to facilitate meeting between common man and officers. No more cumbersome process of visiting Civil Secretariat physically, pleading with security officials for an entry and once inside if he/she is lucky enough may meet the concerned official as officer may not be present at all or preoccupied with some other work/meeting. The application is simple enough to be used by common man who is somewhat well versed with computer. All the relevant information is centrally stored as this is a cloud based software and as such quite useful from security point of view. This utility is specifically useful for citizens of far flung areas as both time and money gets saved. No more multiple visits as pass gets issued only when the concerned officer gives approval for meeting. For people not versed with mobiles and computers have to take assistance of relatives or they can approach Khidmat Centres for the necessary help. Visitor gets approval via SMS or mail and in case of any rescheduling or cancellation information will be passed on again on SMS or mail.
It is important to mention that this system will be interlinked with Pukaar Grievance Cell and Rapid Assessment System for further follow up, action taken and evaluation. Once interconnected officer can initiate a one to one meeting with aggrieved party for better understanding of the problem and on spot decision to resolve the issue. The Administration on their part can get vital inputs about frequent visitors, reasons for such visits or most number of visitors for a particular department and can always ask the concerned department for the reason. Unnecessary habitual visitors will be cut off who usually hamper the day to day working of the officials and thus better output efficiency is expected from officers in future. CS has rightly emphasised for developing necessary meeting area where officers can even go for a public darbar type meeting for multiple visitors for same kind of problem set. With these meeting halls even visitors will get much needed space to wait in inclement weather, be it scorching summer or icy winter or some particular rainy days. Another very valid suggestion by CS is virtual meeting which will not only save both time and money but the shortest possible way out to resolve the bottle necks specifically during winters of Kashmir when road commuting is almost impossible.
Basic infra has to be in place at both Civil Secretariats with computer and internet, one such setup for a footfall of around 50 visitors in a day. All said and done the sincere intent, focus and attention of administration in this regard is appreciable. Every forward step is welcomed and some hiccups will definitely be there which will be resolved as and when they crop up. Well begun is half done but more important is the fact that Government is trying different ways to listen to public, understand their problems and resolve their grievances. Every such initiative is right step in right direction, after all this is Government of public, for public
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