Karnataka Labour Dept, DIPR geotags and delivers food to labourers
The Karnataka government has taken several technology initiatives, which are housed in the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR)
Dasoha – Free Food Helpline
The Labour Department has established a free-food helpline at the premises of the DIPR. By using a geo-tagging software developed by the Labour department, over one lakh food-packets are being delivered per day to labourers sheltered across the camps set-up in Bangalore and different parts of the state.
The unique feature of the system is to geo-tag the commute of food-packets and thereby being notified regarding the delivery of the essentials to the needy.
“With the help of geo-tagging, we are able to identify the area of the call. Food is prepared in five places in Bangalore, and we are constantly monitoring on the huge installed screens at our facility as to where the food is going and when is it reaching the needy labourers,” informs Dinesh HB, Joint Director, DIPR.
The Labour Department has established a dedicated Network Operation Center within the facility of DIPR which is equipped with robust IT and people working on it are trying the maximise the effectiveness of this initiative.
The help-line unit is answerable to 6000 calls/day through a unit comprising of 20 lines monitored by a staff of 30 Civil Police personnel, Home-guards, voluntary organisations and institutions known for people-friendly, mass and hygienic food-catering are backing-up for the smooth and successful execution of this challenging task of high morality.
Karnataka state has carved out the volunteering group called ‘Corona Warriors’, an initiative by Karnataka state Labour Department and DIPR with Red Cross. These Corona Warriors group comprises of Civil Defence personnel, Red-Cross and public volunteers. These volunteers (consisting of 3000 active members) have played a pivotal role in combating Covid-19, especially in spreading awareness, handling food distribution, curbing fake news and geo-tagging the essential services across the state.
Janasnehi- Covid Social Media Centre and Control Room
After the corona outbreak Janasnehi team of DIPR started getting a huge number of queries from the public on the disease. There was panic and rumours of fake news spreading rapidly. DIPR realised that it needs to bust the fake news and give right information to the people to avert panic.
A full-fledged Social Media Centre and Control Room is established in the DIPR to extend help to the public to avail satisfactory responses for their Covid related queries. The unit consists of 60 units and is operational 24X7 to facilitate essential information on the Telegram page- ‘Covid-19 Karnataka Sahaya’ which has over 22,000 followers and around 1000 floating number of viewers provides useful updates and answers the queries by content voluntarily sourced by eminent doctors, social workers, media personnel and officers from different departments.
Manivannan P, Secretary of DIPR shares, “Even with citizen engagement being its primary role, the department has successfully executed a unique platform ‘Janasnehi’ under the direction of the Chief Minister who has allocated INR 5 crore in the state budget by recognising the same, which has further boosted the confidence of the department. Thanks to the Commissioner and Team DIPR.”
