e-District public portal launched in Thiruvananthapuram
20 Oct, 2013Citizens can now file on line complaints to seek redressal of their grievance relating to government services. Anyone can now file a complaint online instead of going to a government office to submit a complaint. On October 18, the e-District public portal was launched in Thiruvananthapuram and initially all the Industries Department offices across the State have been integrated into the portal. The expected time schedule of expansion of the services is as under:
· By the end of November, the online public grievance service is likely to be extended to all Collectorates.
· By the end of December, the implementation of the service at Vikas Bhavan, the Secretariat, and public offices are likely to be added.
· By March 2014, all the government offices would be brought into the network.
The portal will be of help to the citizens who wish to seek information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. The government’s e-payment gateway has been bundled with the e-portal making it easy for citizens to submit the fee for various services using Internet banking, credit card, or debit card of as many as 66 banks. At the select offices within 10 notified departments, the online RTI service will be available through Akshaya Kendras and the e-District public portal. The Departments of Education, Information Technology, Health and Family Welfare, Motor Vehicles, Industries, Urban Affairs, NoRKA-ROOTS, Finance and the forest headquarters have been integrated into the online RTI service in the first phase. The Thiruvananthapuram Collectorate has also been added to the list. Payment of fee for various utility services like electricity, phone, and water, motor vehicle fee, police e-challan, and various fees of Mahatma Gandhi University and Calicut University s also inbuilt in the e-District public portal. Issue of 23 revenue certificates has also been built in the portal. Any citizen who wishes to use the services is required to register himself with the portal using their Aadhaar number, e-mail ID, and mobile number.
There are many departments like the Motor Vehicles Department, Pareeksha Bhavan, and Civil Supplies Department which have integrated their databases with the e-portal. The government officials would have access and verify the authenticity of reference documents such as ration card, driving licence, and SSLC certificate.
The portal edistrict.kerala.gov.in. has currently the following:
· Nine government departments:- motor vehicles, revenue, welfare, local self-government, labour, cultural affairs, Kerala police, KSEB, KWA, BSNL
· Two universities: Calicut and MG.
A user would have to pay, besides the prescribed fees, a service charge of Rs 10/- and a gateway charge of Rs 2/- for each transaction which can be made using the debit/credit cards.