‘Digital J&K’ to usher in golden chapter: Chief Secretary

Jammu, Feb 28: Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta Tuesday remarked that the progress achieved towards the goal of ‘Digital J&K’ in recent times is one of the brightest chapters that would go down as the most transformative part in the history of the UT.
He made these remarks while launching the integration of services of Municipalities with Umang and artisan related services on Digi Locker applications.
On the occasion Commissioner Secretary, Information Technology; MD & CEO, J&K Bank; SIO, NIC; representative from H&UDD and other concerned officers were present either physically or virtually.
Dr Mehta observed that the government has launched digital services for ease of living of the public and to bring transparency in delivery of services to the citizens. He said that the IT enabled governance has reduced the gap between intent and delivery. He maintained that the transition to Digital J&K has empowered people like never before as it has brought government to the doorsteps of people. He pointed out that the digitization of services not only ensures promptness in delivery of services but equally aids in maintaining highest degree of transparency and accountability.
He established that the endeavour of the LG administration is to bring every possible comfort to the citizens. He emphasized that there is no better way to do it but to enable them to assess all the services from the comforts of their homes. He lauded the IT Department and the local chapter of NIC for making it possible to switch to online mode of service delivery in such a short period of time.
The Chief Secretary impressed that onboarding the services on mobile applications like Umang and DigiLocker will make the services more user-friendly and easily accessible. He reiterated that the time is not far when all the citizen-centric services will be integrated with such platforms including the RAS for feedback with an additional feature of auto-appeal to ensure timely delivery and fixation of responsibility in case of any undue delay.
At the same time the Chief Secretary urged the MD & CEO of J&K Bank to further reduce the timeframe for extending the loans taken for self employment. He also vouched for handholding of all the artisans and craftsmen by giving them easy access to capital to upscale their activities or establishing the enterprises. He stressed on simplifying the procedures for all such advances by doing away with asking for collaterals for loans of lesser value and documents least required or available online now.
Later on the Chief Secretary launched two separate services of H&UDD meant for seeking ‘No Objection Certificates’ in Municipal Corporations and other Municipalities for establishment of commercial enterpriseson Umang application. He also launched the integration of services namely Registration of Societies, Weavers Registration Card and Artisans Registration Card on DigiLocker platform.
All these services are essential for the shopkeepers, artisans and craftsmen for availing the credit facility from the banks and many other services offered by government departments. These developments are going to address lot of their issues they were facing and would give them access to documents instantly just at the click of a button.
It was also given out on the occasion that the department remains committed to leveraging technology to improve the lives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and to making the region a hub for IT innovation and growth in the times to come.