JK Govt taking digital measures for establishing transparent, accountable, responsive governance system across J&K

SRINAGAR : Jammu and Kashmir government, led by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, is taking comprehensive digital measures for establishing transparent, accountable and responsive governance system to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

In a short span of three years, J&K Government has introduced reforms in every sector, thereby giving a significant push to the growth and development trajectory here. The results are visible on ground as J&K is now moving ahead to be one of the leading regions in sectors like IT, Industries, Tourism, Revenue, Women Entrepreneurship and Youth Empowerment.

The nightmare of seven decades is over and a corruption free Jammu and Kashmir is emerging.

A multitude of good governance reforms have been initiated in J&K by the Modi Government like Prevention of Corruption Act, Abolition of Interviews for Group C and D posts besides more than 800 Central Laws have been made applicable to J&K after it got the status of Union Territory. The long-pending cadre review, the establishment of CAT benches, Extension of RTI Act, CPGRAMS, and conduct of common eligibility test through the National Recruitment Agency at every district headquarter in the UT besides other similar pro-people measures.

J&K has launched many e-governance initiatives to promote transparency, accountability and responsive working culture in departments. In this regard, the Mobile Application ‘Satark Nagrik’ and Departmental Vigilance Officers (DVO) Portal of J&K Anti-Corruption Bureau has been launched by Lieutenant Governor which is combating corruption to a great extent.

The ‘Satark Nagrik’ application has been developed with the purpose to facilitate the seamless flow of information about corruption and enable citizens to submit their grievances with ease and mobility. Any citizen having an android based device can download the application from the play store. A unique ID number will be allotted at the time of registration of grievance which later can be used to track the status of the grievance.

Similarly, the DVO portal has been designed to enable an online communication channel with the DVOs of various departments. In certain cases, the complaints are related to ongoing works, current recruitments and payments yet to be made against contracts etc. By referring these matters to DVOs, violations and shortcomings can immediately be rectified and loss to the state exchequer can be prevented. Other measures of this system included an Electronic Vigilance Clearance System for furnishing vigilance clearances through electronic or online mode for all the government employees.

Also, UMANG’s unified mobile application for new-age governance is a multi-lingual mobile platform for providing ‘anytime-anywhere governance’. In sync with the vision of ‘AAPKA MOBILE HAMARA DAFTAR’ the Government of J&K is committed to providing citizen-centric services through the mobile mode. This will enhance the accessibility of services and add to the convenience of citizens while availing these services.

The services on the UMANG platform are end to end digitized and provide a one-stop solution to the citizens starting from application for a service and it’s processing to receipt of certificates/permissions. The services being provided have been integrated with an online payment gateway and Rapid Assessment System (RAS) of digital feedback.

Several popular services like birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, income certificates, character certificates, dependent certificates, SC/ST/ RBA certificate and related documents can be accessed by the public at https://web.umang.gov.in or by downloading the mobile app ‘UMANG’ which is available on ‘Andriod’ and ‘IOS’ platform.

With the adoption of e-office, a simplified, responsive, effective and transparent paperless working culture across all the departments is being achieved. With the implementation of e-office initiative, the disposal rate of files has touched an all-time high of 96 percent. Besides, 305 Head of Departments are now on e-office and E-files are accessible to all officials irrespective of their locations.

J&K is first among UTs in the e-office disposal of files. Currently, 200 services are online which have been linked with a feedback mechanism. All HoDs have been brought on e-office portal while the “Annual Performance Reports’ of JK Administrative Services (JKAS) officers have been shifted to online mode on SPARROW Portal.

The ranking of UT of J&K has improved significantly and has achieved the number one rank among all the UTs in the NeSDA-2021. The UT Portal has higher compliance to the assessment parameters like accessibility, ‘Information Security and Privacy’, ‘Content Availability’ and ‘Ease of Use’.