Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Monday inaugurated Digital Jammu & Kashmir week and launched several digital initiatives here at SKICC to showcase citizen-centric IT initiatives that he said have helped in bringing about greater transparency in governance and ease of living for citizens.
The LG also inaugurated Digi-Mela in districts which will generate awareness about digital solutions and new technologies.
According to an official press release, emphasizing the need to take effective measures providing last mile solution in digital services for the people of J&K, the LG directed the stakeholders to formulate short-term goals of 3-6 months and long-term vision statements to transform core ICT infrastructure, governance & services for ease of living, accessibility, innovation to transform J&K into digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
On the occasion, the LG also launched ‘Digi Dost’ program aimed at developing a strong network of digitally empowered young volunteers at District, Block and Panchayat level who can work as the brand ambassadors for Digital J&K and Digital India to achieve maximum mobilization and awareness on digital services.
‘Digi Dost’ volunteers will also assist in digital service delivery, data collection, training, spreading information regarding Digital India campaign and make the people aware about cyber hygiene and cybercrimes, the press release said.
The LG observed that ‘digitally empowered’ is a new yardstick to measure the present literacy rate. “The programmes and initiatives launched today are part of the government’s efforts to bring ease, transparency & convenience in public service delivery,” observed the LG.
He also asked the district administrations to implement the goals of Digital J&K week in collaboration with civil society and PRIs.
Highlighting the digital reforms introduced to realize the vision of Digital J&K, the LG said that in the last two years, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dedicated efforts have been made to create an enabling environment for digital inclusion and promoting digital literacy to bridge the gap between government programs and citizens requirements.
“J&K, through Innovation, Implementation and Inclusion is setting unprecedented benchmarks in digital initiatives and leading by example in Prime Minister’s Digital India campaign,” the LG observed.
“We are number one in the ranking of UTs in e-governance. Host of initiatives like e-office, BEAMS, Awam ki Awaaz, MyGov, e-Unnat, Digilocker, Aapki Zameen Aapki Nigrani have brought transparency & accountability in governance and made transformational changes in the lives of people,” the LG said.
“Our aim is to make all government services easily accessible to the people without human interface. Today, details of every penny spent in J&K are in the public domain. As many as 209 government services have been integrated with the Rapid Assessment System for real time feedback of citizens. Our recent assessment of citizens’ feedback shows 85 percent approval rating for the citizen centric services,” he added.
Citing a recent report of the central government, the LG highlighted that J&K UT e-transactions clocked 22.48 crore since 1st January, 2022. Digital Transactions crossed the 22 lakh mark last month from J&K Bank. J&K is among top three states/UTs with 52 percent score in Internet penetration.
“We are performing better than many states/UTs with 72 percent male & 43.3 percent women internet users,” he added.
The LG congratulated the Information Technology department and people of J&K on the launch of Digital Jammu & Kashmir week to be observed from 25th-31st July.
J Satyanarayan, former Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeITY), while addressing the gathering virtually gave insights for making J&K a top performer in the digital services system.
He laid emphasis on the data management policies and adopting public private partnerships for digital transformation.
Sanjay Gaden, Principal Consultant (Head-SeMT)-NISG, on the occasion explained in detail the roadmap for achieving the goal of making J&K a truly digitally empowered region. He laid down various ways and methods by which various digital services of the J&K Government could make the life of common people easy and prosperous.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K, while speaking on the occasion said that various digital initiatives and services that will be promoted intensively during the Digital Jammu & Kashmir week would take the goal of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” to every nook and corner of the UT.
He further said that digital governance would bring immense prosperity and called for laying strict provisions for delaying services. He also shared the government’s vision in developing digital library.
The Chief Secretary appealed to the people of J&K to come forward and completely connect themselves with digital services.
Prerna Puri, Commissioner/Secretary, Information Technology department highlighted the goals of the Digital week and spoke about various e-initiatives implemented by the IT Department of J&K UT administration.
Abhishek Sharma, CEO JaKeGA, presented the Vote of thanks.
Earlier, the LG flagged off Digi Yatra and inspected the stalls put up by various departments of UT administration for providing information and awareness on the digital services and their process being extended by them.
A video presentation displaying various Digi-services & their benefits was also shown on the occasion.
The occasion also witnessed the release of an e-compendium of IT initiatives, besides the launching of Digilocker integration in domicile certificate and ‘Tagline & Logo ‘competition on MyGov by the LG.
Junaid Azim Mattu, Mayor SMC; Aftab Malik, DDC Chairman Srinagar; R K Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Home department; Vivek Bhardwaj, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance department; Administrative Secretaries; besides Deputy Commissioners, senior officials, and large number of people from across the UT were present on the occasion.
Committee to examine transfer policy of reserved category employees: LG
Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha on Monday said that a committee headed by Principal Secretary GAD has been constituted to examine the long pending demand of transfer policy for reserved category employees.
“A Committee headed by Principal Secretary, GAD has been constituted to examine the long pending demand of transfer policy for reserved category Employees. The Committee to examine all the aspects and submit a report in time-bound manner,” office of LG J&K tweeted.
