Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 30: Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today issued directions for implementing biometric attendance in Government Departments across the State to ensure presence of employees especially in remote and far-flung areas.
“Placing high priority on use of IT services in improving administrative efficiency, the Chief Minister issued directions for implementing biometric attendance in Government Departments all over the State.
“For this, the IT Department will prepare a comprehensive proposal for funding by the State Finance Department so that necessary equipments related to recording of biometric attendance is installed in the departments,” an official spokesman said.
He said the Chief Minister gave these directions while chairing a high-level meeting of the Information Technology (IT) Department here today.
The technology will ensure presence of employees in Government departments, especially in remote and far-flung areas of the State.
Highlighting the urgent need to bridge the digital divide by using IT services, Sayeed called for broadening the scope of functions at existing Khidmat Centres so that they become rich databank of information and provide dependable community-based services to the people.
He sanctioned Rs two crore for improving internet connectivity in the Civil Secretariat as well as Khidmat Centres for firmly embedding an effective e-governance mechanism between the people and online service providers.
“Use of technology in delivery of public services is the need of the hour,” the Chief Minister said.
Describing people as the principal beneficiaries of e-governance, the Chief Minister directed the IT department to provide them online services, particularly related to police recruitment, information on vacancies in Public Service Commission and Service Selection Recruitment Board as well as obtaining copies of ration cards and power bills in a hassle-free manner.
“Necessary budgetary support will be provided for upgrading the IT infrastructure in Khidmat Centres to make them effective bridges of Government-citizen interface,” Sayeed said.
The Chief Minister said he will take up the issue of improving bandwidth speed with the Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for enabling the State to provide e-services to the people without any bottlenecks.
“The State Government will be transformed into a Smart Government so that it becomes transparent and accountable thus bringing efficiency in public delivery mechanism,” he said, adding, IT-enabled services form an important component of the model of good governance conceived by the PDP-BJP coalition Government.
Secretary IT, Hridesh Kumar, informed the Chief Minister that 52 online services have been identified in various departments for rolling out from Khidmat Centres, out of which 25 will be extended this year.
Presently, the IT Department is only providing five online services for the benefit of the people which include old-age pension, age and physically-handicapped certificates and information on National Family Benefit Scheme.
Khidmat Centres are Service Delivery Points for all e-services in the State. Presently, 1,109 such Centres, with Jammu and Kashmir Bank as Service Centre Agency, are functional and 1,500 more are planned to be opened during the current financial year.
While directing the IT Department to provide wide publicity to the services being offered through print and electronic media, Sayeed also asked the Chief Secretary to monitor the implementation of the decisions taken in the meeting to provide e-services to the people so that they don’t have to struggle and go from pillar-to-post in search of information and facilitation.
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