Digital J&K initiative aimed at fair governance: Chief Secretary

Jammu, Aug 1: The Digital J&K Week 2022 concluded with valedictory function held here at Convention Centre Jammu today. Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta was the Chief Guest on the occasion.
From Government of India, Union Secretary MeITY, Alkesh Kumar Sharma and President and CEO NeGD, Abhishek Singh also participated in the event through video conference. They lauded the distinct efforts being made by the UT government in providing digital services to the public.
The Chief Secretary said that during the ongoing digital revolution, feedback from thousands of people can be gathered in a minute which can efficiently reveal true face of our services. People can easily learn about development works being done anywhere in Jammu & Kashmir through Jan Bhagidari online platform, he informed.
‘Digital governance ensures fair governance. We must do away with the necessity to visit government offices altogether with digital services. Digital services are truly transparent and nondiscriminatory in nature, besides free from corruption’, he continued.
The Chief Secretary said that under the Public Service Guarantee Act, officers failing to provide services in stipulated time would be penalised. The Deputy Commissioners were also asked to spread awareness about the Act in this regard.
He informed that the Aapki Zameen Aapki Nigrani Land Record Information System is the most visited digital service of the UT government. He also called upon the public for linking mobile numbers with their land records for getting prompt updates regarding their land.
He directed Revenue Department to ensure effective digital on-boarding of all their services. Ensure that the people’s rights are protected through digital services, he remarked and urged all to encourage others to acquaint themselves about more than two hundred online services being provided by the government.
The Chief Secretary instructed the School Education Department officers to ensure bio-metric attendance system in all schools of the UT besides giving provision of submitting online feedback, to the students, about the quality of education being provided to them.
While the Jal Shakti Department was asked to ensure maintaining a robust billing, feedback and grievance redressal system, the Health & Medical Education Department was directed for routinely publishing hospital rankings achieved through the Mera Aspataal (My Hospital). It is an online service through which public can give feedback about government hospitals.
He called for maintaining pre and post monsoon cleaning record of nallahs in digital format and asked all Urban Local Bodies of J&K to have individual websites of their own.
Speaking to Deputy Commissioners, the Chief Secretary asked them to start issuing Land Passbooks and for immediate implementation of PM Gati Shakti and Digital India GENESIS initiatives. The respective SP offices were also instructed to get onboard e-office completely.
Dr Mehta also called for providing intractable videos alongside online services to educate people about procedures to avail online services. The departments also asked to upload their legacy data online as early as possible. Our efforts won’t successful until all records and services are online, he remarked. Integration of various online services with DigiLocker was also underlined by the Chief Secretary.
Heads of departments and senior officers gave PowerPoint presentation about the digital services being provided by them and on-boarding of various other services in near future by them.
Awards were later given away to best performing departments, heads of departments and districts in adoption and promotion of digital services platforms.
The event was attended by Administrative Secretaries, Deputy Commissioners among various heads of departments personally and virtually as well.