J&K leads the way in e-governance, offers 1050 digital services

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Jammu and Kashmir leads the country in e-governance, offering 1050 e-services, ahead of Madhya Pradesh with 1010 services and Kerala with 911 e-services, according to a National e-Services Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) report.

Driven by technology, e-governance or electronic governance has broadly transformed citizen services and government functioning in the Union Territory with the application of Information and Communications Technology.

The NeSDA report was released by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India.

Chief Executive Officer Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA), Anuradha Gupta, told Moneycontrol that through e-governance the government is currently providing 1050 online services in J&K, up from 1028 services just last month. “We are in the process of developing more services for the people. We are working on adding 10-15 more services which will be available for the people very soon.”

JaKeGA functions under the supervision and guidance of the Administrative Secretary of the Information Technology Department which is responsible for ensuring increased transparency, efficiency and effectiveness for delivery of citizen services to common people.

Gupta added that there are still some offline areas which the government is working on to ensure 100 percent hassle free online services for the people. “The JaKeGA has asked for information from various departments to include their services on eUNNAT, the Integrated Services Delivery Portal of J&K, facilitating citizens with easy access to all govt schemes and services under one umbrella.”

Almost all the government services are made available in the digital format on e-UNNAT—Unified, Integrated, Accessible and Transparent portal launched on July 14, 2022 so that users do not have to visit different portals for different services.

Citizens in J&K using desktops and laptops are availing various online services on https://eunnat.jk.gov.in while people using mobile phones are availing of the online services on bilingual Mobile Dost App, an initiative of the J&K government to provide a single point of interface to citizens for accessing all government services, emergency helplines and other information services.

Under the Digital J & K programme launched in 2022, the number of online services has increased from 35 services in 2019 to 1050 services as on date.

Earlier, this year J&K also became the first UT in India to have entirely shifted to a digital mode of administration.

According to an order issued by the J&K Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, all governance and administrative services in the state are now only available digitally. “ J&K has transformed itself from a laggard to leader when it comes to bringing governance at the doorsteps of people. Digital Governance is the new ethos and the way forward to a future ready J&K,” Mehta stated.

A senior official posted at Srinagar’s Old Secretariat told Moneycontrol that e-governance has enabled the simultaneous operationalisation of both the Jammu and Srinagar secretariats, saving nearly Rs 200 crore in expenditure on the Darbar Move practice every year.

Through the Durbar Move the Civil Secretariat and some other government offices used to function for six months in summer in Srinagar and six months of winter in Jammu.

The 150-year-old Darbar Move carrying over 300 truckloads of files between the two capital cities—Srinagar and Jammu was abolished in June 2021. “Ever since the Durbar Move was abolished, the e-office is running smoothly and ensuring a swift mode of governance in J&K. For example, work on a simple file would be completed in weeks or sometimes in months but now due to the online system the work is done within hours. Earlier the files would reach competent authorities through corruption, nepotism and often the files would get lost during the Durbar Move but now e-office has removed all those barriers,” an official who was part of the Durbar Move told Moneycontrol.

According to a J & K Information and Public Relations Department press release, J&K Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, stated that the administration is committed to provide ease, convenience, and accessibility of services to the common man, ushering in a new era of digital governance.

“The digital transformation has helped the administration become more open, transparent and develop new delivery models to ensure people can access e-services conveniently. The UT has recorded more than two crore e-transactions in October 2022, which is significantly higher than 10.5 lakh e-transactions during the same period in 2021.”

Before 2021, internet services regularly shut down in J&K during the anti-militancy operations, on the eve of Independence Day or Republic Day but now there is hardly any internet disruption.

According to Internet Shutdown Tracker, a portal maintained by Software Freedom Law Centre, a legal services organisation working in this field in India, the number of internet shutdowns in J&K for the current year is only six compared to 116 in 2020.

Common people living in urban areas of J&K are mostly able to submit online applications and forms themselves while a huge chunk of rural population still rely on Common Service Centres (CSC), delivering government e-services to people living in rural and remote locations.

“Offline services were getting delivered at the cost of enormous time, energy and hectic procedures. The online services ranging from getting income certificates to domicile certificates and submitting various applications to avail of various government schemes are available at the fingertips,” said Waseem Ahmad, a local resident of Srinagar.

Ahmad said that people are also able to pay utility bills easily from their digital devices. For example, earlier electricity consumers had to wait in long queues in banks to pay their electricity bills but with online payment, consumers pay bills from their digital devices without even going out of their homes.

Zubair Ahmad, who runs a Common Service Centre in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, told Moneycontrol that earlier students attempting to avail of scholarships were able to submit a simple application for income certificate within a day or two but thanks to e-UNNAT, applications are submitted within 10-15 minutes. “People mostly reach out for domicile and income certificates and submitting an online application is a cake walk. However, there are certain areas which the government should work upon. For instance, once the applications are submitted the concerned officials do not check these applications on time, due to which a lot of time gets wasted.”

Gupta said though there were still glitches in some of the websites, the online support team was working on it to address the issues very soon.