How can one forget BengaluruOne
initiative that brought the payment of all utilities under one roof, with
centers spread across the city operating from
8am to 8pm or the BWSSB and BESCOM automated bill payment machines.
BBMP launched the SAS, enabling assessment and payment of Property Tax online, thereby cutting the
middle men, curbing corruption and saving the citizens from the hassle of
standing in queues for hours.
KSRTC going online with
its ticket booking was dubbed as the first of its kind in the country. BMTC
online access to bus schedules or enabling the staff to apply for leaves via
Kiosks, the state embraced technology seamlessly for all the right reasons.
Bengaluru police went a
step further, made their presence felt in the social media and starting putting
out information on Law & Order and Traffic on Facebook. With rising crime
on children no less than the City Police Commissioner and his team took to twitter
to interact with worried citizens, sharing information, making police truly
accessible and people friendly. In which city in India will you find a Police
Commissioner replying to your tweet and tagging the relevant officer?
After the arrest of an ISIS online supporter, the city went tizzy
by the threats posted by some ISIS supporter calling for revenge. It was indeed
very reassuring to see how the City police quickly addressed the citizens and put
out a letter from Police Commissioner in social media and asking people to
share it.
When a concerned citizen wrote this tweet to Police Commissioner “@sai_2008: @BlrCityPolice @CPBlr
how we can believe that this letter is really from police commissioner because
electronically anything is possible"
Police Commissioner quickly replied "@CPBlr:
@sai_2008 @BlrCityPolice believe me. It's from me!!"
Government of Karnataka is
using technology as an enabler and as a tool to reach out to its citizens
across all medium/platfroms, and why not, when a large part of our population
is connected on mobile phone network already.
‘Governance at your Fingertips’ under the name ‘MobileOne’ is a user friendly mobile application and 161 toll free number offering over 4000+
services ranging from Utility, Police, Telecom, Travel, Agriculture, Tax, Sakala,
HRMS, Healthcare, Banking etc across the state. Citizens can download the
application on their mobiles or dial 161 to access information, check service
status, check nearest bus stop, raise complain or pay bill etc at their convenience.
Governance is about making
the right policies and reaching it out to people, Government of Karnataka through
its innovation and technology initiatives has show the way to the entire
country time and again.
To showcase the Karnataka technology
initiative, Karnataka tableau at this Republic Day in Delhi should indeed be
the MobileOne and various MGovernance initiatives of Government of Karnataka.
It’s time to say that Karnataka is inspired by its Capital city that provides IT
& IT enabled services to the world.
Access to Services, Information
and Processes will go a long way in taking Governance to people and ‘Governance at your Fingertips’ is
indeed one big step in the right direction by Honorable Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
and his Government.