JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today launched the PSGA auto-appeal feature for the 08 online services offered by the Revenue Departments. The feature is going to auto-escalate the appeals in case the services are not provided to the applicant within the time limit set under the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA).
Dr Mehta called this step revolutionary. He applauded the IT Department for integrating this feature into the vital digital services offered by the Revenue Department to the citizens. He directed for integration of this Auto-appeal feature for all the designated 43 online services by the March end of this year. He also advised them to work on activating this feature for all the 105 services specified under the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) at the earliest.
The Chief Secretary stated that these services form the bulk of the applications of citizens. He called that making the auto-appeal feature active for services related to the everyday life of the people like availing of documents like income, domicile, legal heir, Marriage, Unemployment, Character, and Category certificates are very pivotal in furthering the career or securing jobs for the youth and therefore have been prioritized for inclusion in the Auto-appeal system.
He made out that the benefits like old age, widow pensions besides scholarships under various social security schemes, etc should also be included in the system forthwith.
He observed that this feature would act as a turning point in maintaining transparency and accountability in services to the public and eradicating corruption. He stated that the auto-escalation feature of online services is going to put an end to malpractices besides promoting fairness, a priority set by the current dispensation in all of its affairs including the offering of government employment and public contracts to its citizens on the basis of merit alone
On the occasion, it was brought out that the delivery of services through online mode has greatly reduced the waiting period for the processing of applications. It was revealed that the bulk of applications in the Revenue Department pertains to such applications and it is going to benefit many of the applicants.
It was also apprised that a feature like auto-appeal is going to bring greater transparency in these services in the future as these would ensure their delivery as per the timeframe set for them under PSGA and fixing of responsibility on part of any officer/official for any undue delay.
Those who were present include the Commissioner Secretary, IT; Secretary, GAD; SIO, NIC; Scientists from the IT Department besides other concerned officers of these Departments.
