Jammu, Mar 31: Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta Friday launched the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) auto-appeal feature for six more online services offered by the Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD).
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that the feature was going to auto escalate the appeals in case the services were not provided to the applicant within the time limit set under the PSGA.
Mehta complimented the IT Department for integrating the feature in the vital digital services offered by the H&UDD to the citizens.
He directed for integrating this auto-appeal feature for all the designated 43 online services by next month.
The chief secretary also advised them to work on activating this feature for all the 105 services specified under the PSGA at the earliest.
He said that these services form the bulk of the applications of citizens made in the department.
Mehta said that the auto-appeal feature for services related to everyday life of the people like birth and death certificates were critical for enhancing ease of living.
He emphasised that benefits like old age and widow pension, scholarships under various social security schemes should also be included in the system without any delay.
The chief secretary said that this feature would act as a turning point in maintaining transparency and accountability in services to the public and eradicating corruption. He said that the auto escalation feature of online services was going to put an end to malpractices besides promoting fairness, a priority set by the current dispensation in all its affairs including offering of government employment and public contracts to its citizens on the basis of merit alone.
On the occasion it was brought out that the delivery of services through online mode has greatly reduced the waiting period for processing of applications.
It was revealed that the bulk of applications in the Revenue Department pertain to such applications and it was going to benefit a large number of people.
It was also apprised that the feature like auto-appeal was going to bring a greater transparency in these services in future as these would ensure their delivery as per the timeframe set for them under PSGA and fixing of responsibility on part of any officer or official for any undue delay.
The services which were brought under the auto-appeal system include non-availability certificate of birth record, issuance of birth certificate and inclusion of child name in existing record, correction in existing birth record, issuance of death certificate, non-availability certificate of death record and correction in existing death record.
Principal Secretary H&UDD; Commissioner Secretary IT; Secretary GAD; and SIO NIC were also present on the occasion.
