By: Amreen Jawaid
In today’s fast paced era – technology has touched, impacted and revolutionized almost every sphere of an individual’s life making it easier, simpler and more productive at the same time. Technological advances in the field of education, medical facilities, commercial projects, retailing have led to a substantial increase in their reach and a concurrent upliftment in the quality of services being provided to the masses.
Governance has been one such field that until recently employed age old methods of pen and paper for all official work. This often led to delays and reduced efficiency of the system due to roadblocks encountered at various steps like misplacement of files, trouble in record keeping and retrieval, running with files from one office to another to name a few. The traditional methods also lacked any system of transparency and laid grounds for corruption and bribery to sprout.
With the launch of the Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA), the government of Jammu and Kashmir has taken all the steps in the right direction to ensure increased transparency, efficiency and effectiveness for delivery of citizen centred services to the common people. The agency works directly under the able supervision and guidance of Administrative Secretary of Information Technology Department of the Government.
The main purpose of the Jammu and Kashmir eGovernance Agency (JaKeGA) is to design, deploy and manage eGovernance projects by providing a managemental, financial, legal and technical framework to the citizen of Jammu and Kashmir. JaKeGAas an organisation has committed towards promoting and disseminating the culture of information technology in Jammu Kashmir so that the general public can take advantage of information technology and electronic governance. The agency has also established eService centers throughout the newly formed union territory through appropriate public-private partnerships to ensure that the public has the information and eService they need at their door steps.
The facility enables an individual to file, track and assess the status of his applications in real time – ensuring full Transparency in the process restoring people’s faith in the system and also reducing the application processing time substantially too. The complied information for every department is also provided to the authorities on a regular basis leading to constant review and rectification of the system – all with a unified role of enhancing the efficiency of such governance initiatives.
Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta also chaired a meeting held in the month of February where he officially announced May 2022 as the deadline for unification of various governance initiatives like Digital JK, Digital District and Digital Panchayati campaigns under a single umbrella hence promoting a comfortable life in Jammu and Kashmir.According to the minutes, more than 200 government services from various departments will be brought online on a single platform, with a provision for Single Sign-On (SSO) through first registration which will go a long way in assisting the public in using their unique digital IDs to access multiple government services all at once and eradicate the cumbersome processes associated with the current trends.
The initiatives taken by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir have not only brought improvement in the system but also these e-governed services by making information available to the citizens round the clock in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner resulting in good governance by obtaining its eight major characteristics of Participation, Transparency, Effectiveness and Efficiency, Responsiveness, Accountability, Equity and Inclusiveness, Rule of Law, as envisioned for the effective and efficient governance. Success of the E-Governance is not only determined by technology but also by the consequences & acceptability by the society in general & stakeholders in particular. Thus for proper implementation and success of these schemes it is imperative for the government and citizens to come hand in hand and maximize the outcomes associated with this initiative and fill the future of the region with innumerable opportunities and hope.
The writer is a Gender and Development Researcher & social activist
