Harsh Gupta Unveils Prajaseve Overhaul; ‘Namma Seve’ App, WhatsApp Grievances Planned for Karnataka
Bengaluru: Karnataka is moving to speed up public grievance redressal and reform delivery of government services through the newly structured Prajaseve Department, with plans to launch the ‘Namma Seve’ mobile app on October 2 and introduce a WhatsApp chatbot for citizens to lodge grievances, Principal Secretary Harsh Gupta said.
Addressing a press conference at Vikas Soudha on the Prajaseve Abhiyana and the structure and functioning of the department, Gupta said 26,387 grievances were registered during the Prajaseve Abhiyana held under the Chief Minister’s leadership on September 5. Of these, 13,872 grievances have been resolved, while 12,514 are under examination.
The Revenue Department received the highest number of grievances, with a large proportion relating to old-age pensions. Gupta said a review of ineligible pension beneficiaries had resulted in a higher number of representations. A significant number of requests were also received for adding members to ration cards.
Under a government order, the Administrative Reforms wing of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), the Sakala Mission and the Public Grievance Redressal wing have been merged into the new Prajaseve Department.
The e-Office system and the CCMS system used for monitoring court cases have also been transferred to the department.
Gupta said 898 services are currently available on the Seva Sindhu portal. Another 2,456 services across various departments have been identified, of which 2,300 are already online. The remaining 156 services will be taken online, with the government ultimately aiming to bring all these services under the Sakala framework.
Artificial intelligence technology is being introduced to classify public grievance applications quickly, read PDF documents and route complaints to the appropriate section. Gupta said the system would require some more time before becoming fully operational.
Janaspandana meetings will be mandatory every Saturday. Meetings on the first and third Saturdays will be held under the chairmanship of district in-charge ministers, while meetings on the second and fourth Saturdays will be held at the hobli level under legislators.
Every application received from the public will have to be entered into the online system and an acknowledgement issued.
Citizens whose applications and complaints are received at Janaspandana meetings will also be able to follow up on their resolution at review meetings every Wednesday. Tahsildars and panchayat executive officers will conduct reviews from 9 am to 11 am, Assistant Commissioners from 11 am to 1 pm, and Deputy Commissioners from 3 pm to 5 pm.
People dissatisfied with the resolution of their grievance at any of these three stages can appear personally and present their case. Gupta said efforts would then be made to resolve the grievance in the presence of the departmental official concerned.
A two-queue system is also being introduced for grievance review, with separate queues for people lodging complaints for the first time and those who have already complained but have not received a resolution.
Special powers have been provided through the Deputy Commissioners’ login. If a grievance remains unresolved even after 21 days, senior officials can use the login to send the case for reconsideration or close it finally.
The government also plans to bring the identified services onto a unified digital platform and provide citizens with a single sign-on facility to access government services through one login.
AI technology will be used to simplify the search for government schemes and the application process. Citizens will be able to use voice or text inputs to identify schemes relevant to them.
DigiLocker integration is planned to avoid repeated uploading of documents, while certificates issued through the system will carry QR codes to enable authenticity verification.
Gupta said the government is preparing to launch the ‘Namma Seve’ mobile app on October 2, with the objective of allowing citizens to access services through their mobile phones in a cashless, paperless and contactless manner.
A WhatsApp chatbot is also planned to enable citizens to submit grievances more easily. Based on the location associated with an audio or text message submitted by a citizen, the AI-enabled system is intended to route the grievance directly to the appropriate officials, Gupta said.
He said the measures are aimed at making the Prajaseve Department more citizen-friendly and strengthening both administrative reforms and public grievance redressal in Karnataka.
About the Author
