President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday launched “Karnataka Mobile One”, an ambitious mobile governance project, of the state government in Bangaluru. The government claims the programme offers over 600 services, like issuance of birth and death certificates, property registration among others, into one seamless web location that can be accessed through mobile phones.
After opening up the project for the public, Mukherjee said the project “signals a new era in governance’’. The mobile-based eGovernance project brings a whole range of government services, that are currently spread across hundreds of websites, at one platform. As many as 4,500 public and private online services comes under one virtual roof that can be accessed by smart phones through an app or through SMS or voice calls.
“Karnataka pursues the deepening of bond between the government and the governed. This, according to me, epitomises the philosophy of governance that our ancient treatises like Bhagavat Gita, Arthashastra and Manusmriti had propounded,’’ the President said.
Mobile One the eGovernance project in Karnataka is being labelled as the first of its kind in the country and brings a whole range of government services that are currently spread across hundreds of government websites into one common easily accessible location.
A Mobile One app will be the gateway to the government services for mobile phone users while users of ordinary phones will be able access services through SMSes or calls to the toll free 161 number.
The Mobile One eGovernance project is being positioned by the Congress government in Karnataka as a flagship achievement of its 18 month tenure. The efforts to provide time bound and online services for government departments called the Sakala scheme had originally been launched by the BJP government during its tenure from 2008-2013.
As many as 600 government services was made time bound under the Sakala scheme and officials were liable for failing to deliver services with the prescribed limit for each service.