PM shows special interest towards Karnataka's "Sakala" system

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shown "special interest" towards 'Sakala', the state's guarantee of government services to citizens system, to look at the possibilities of using it at the national level, Karnataka Minister Suresh Kumar said on Monday.

Sakala has achieved a distinctive milestone of receiving and disposing over 20 crore applications, the Minister said, adding, work is in progress to take it to the next level by making it cashless, faceless and paperless, and also delivering services at the citizen's doorstep.

"I would like to say our state's 'Sakala' is like a flagship programme in the entire country. The Prime Minister hastaken special interest about it and had got details about it, to see how to use it at national level," Kumar told reportershere.

Sakala aims to ensure in-time delivery of government services to citizens by practising innovative and efficient management systems through capacity building in government andempowering citizens to exercise their right to service.

Sakala was implemented from April 2012 covering entirethe state with 151 services in 11 departments.

At present thereare 1,033 services in 91 departments or institutions underKarnataka Sakala Services Act 2011 (Amendment) Act, 2014.

As on October 26, the Minister said 20,09,94,713 applications have been received and 20,02,84,447 applications have been disposed under Sakala, and added he has asked officials to bring more awareness among people about Sakala through publicity.

"When we give publicity we will get more applications."
Pointing out that "bypass" are taking place at government departments with regard to Sakala applications, he said, "...we have told officials there is no place for bypassing any application, all of them should be taken under Sakala itself."
Noting that Sakala's next step is 'Seva Sindhu', whichwill provide end-to-end online services, Kumar said, "with anidea to be faceless, cashless and paperless we have startedthis recently, and under this 301 services from 43 differentdepartments will be online."
Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar said: "Wherever there are more middlemen like getting BBMP katha done, NA (non-agriculture land) conversion, RT Office at such places we will make online compulsory so that there is no place for middlemen and all transactions happen online."