JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today launched the PSGA auto-appeal feature for 06 more online services offered by the Housing & Urban Development Department.
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 complimented the IT Department for integrating the feature into the vital digital services offered by the Housing Department to the citizens. He directed for integration of this Auto-appeal feature for all the designated 43 online services by next month. 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 made in the department. He said that the auto-appeal feature for services related to the everyday life of the people like birth and death certificates is critical for enhancing the ease of living.
He emphasized that benefits like old age and widow pension, scholarships under various social security schemes, etc should also be included in the system without any delay.
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 its affairs including the offering of government employment and public contracts to its citizens based on 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 pertain to such applications and it is going to benefit a large number of people.
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.
The Services which were today brought under the Auto-appeal system include Non-Availability of Certificate of Birth Record, Issuance of Birth certificate and inclusion of child name in the existing record, correction in an existing birth record, Issuance of Death Certificate, Non-Availability Certificate of Death Record and Correction in existing Death Record.
Those who were present include the Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Commissioner Secretary, IT; Secretary, GAD; SIO, NIC; Scientists from the IT Department besides other concerned officers of these Departments.
