ITC ASSIGNMENT- 1

Submitted By:
Group 17, Section- 2
Gaurav Godara
Naveen Mathur
Ankur Rao
Shruti Kapoor
Bhyrav Mirle

FT173036
FT173056
FT172016
FT172080
FT171052

Client Details: INTRODUCTION

The CM of Karnataka directed the Chief Secretary (CS) to Government of Karnataka (GoK) to
examine this issue and come up with a legislation to guarantee some basic services being
provided to citizens within stipulated time norms.
By December 2011, the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act (KGSCA) was
passed and Rules were notified in January 2012 to provide guarantee of services to citizens
in the state of Karnataka with a stipulated time limiting to citizen related services.

Karnataka was the tenth state to incorporate an act under Right to Public Services
legislation.
Sakala is a scheme which assures timely delivery of government services to citizens. Sakala
offers 375 services under various departments which are sought after by the citizens.
It is an Act to empower the citizens in getting the required services they want in the defined
time period.

Problem Statement:

The attempts to make India a welfare state were always hindered by bureaucratic delays
and the lack of transparency and accountability in the system.
To obtain routine services from government departments has always been associated with
running from one department to other and paying bribes to get work done.
The service delivery times were very high and it was very difficult for the citizens to get the
services on time due to lack of proper monitoring on whether staff is able to deliver the
services, rejection of application stating various reasons, no time frame attached to
services, lack of awareness among citizens on how can they make use of the government
services etc.

How the consultant solved the problem

A comprehensive IT system was developed by NIC for the implementation of the Act
that guaranteed transparent services by government to the citizens
Whenever the request is made via the online portal the citizens receive an
acknowledgement receipt with a unique GSC number.
With GSC number one can monitor the status of his/her application on the website
www.sakala.kar.nic.in
The website integrates all information about the Act and the department, services, time
frames, service procedures, check lists of documents to be submitted.
This system also has a mobile interface with SMS tracking facility and citizens are asked
to register their mobile number so that they could be automatically intimidated about
their application status
For the people who are unable to use web or mobile interface call centres are
established to assist them and call centres resort to online resolutions of the complaint.
A monitoring system was established which consisted of online monitoring and monthly
monitoring and analytics. It ensures complete transparency as it can be used by citizen
also and details of each department and offices can be seen.
A software to monitor and analyse was also developed with which disposal patterns
and delay time and feedback and poor performance could be tracked.

Was the project successful or not?

It achieved following:
It provided mobility to people for easy access and quick access of information and status.
It helped reduced hidden costs borne by citizens on making repeated visits or paying bribes
only to find out procedure and status of application.
It helped improved credibility and reliability on government.
Number of complaints also reduced, specifically for following 7 services:
Khata Transfer/Khata Changes, Possession Certificates/Khata certificates from BDA,
Issue of new/Modification of Ration Cards, Pension for Destitute, Widows and Old age,
Survey of lands & allied services, MGNREGS related issues, Re-totalling & revaluation of
exam marks sheets

The project helped in significant reduction in turnaround times:

Passport verification (1.94 lakhs applications so far) initially required 90 days. After 4
months of SAKALA Act it has been brought down to 20 days only. Backlog of over
60,000 applications was successfully cleared in the process)
Rejections have come down from 7.65% to 3.67%
Disposal rates have improved from the last quarter from 97.35% in November 2012 to
97.85% in February 2013 for over 2 crore applications.
Reduction in government revenue leakages is expected as every application for service is
now being entered in the system.
Specific initiatives by certain districts to simplify procedures and reduce time taken for
delivery of services.
Since project was able to achieve all this in a short span of 2 years it also received Google
Innovation Award and hence was an absolute success.

Reasons for Success

Transparency was enhanced in respect of service delivery procedures,

documentation requirements, time norms, and application status
Provided decision support system
Software was provided in bilingual(Kannada & English)
Exhaustive service was provided(375 services from 30 department)
software maintains complete details of each application from the recording date
and the time of receipt to its return, rejection or disposal
software helps in monitoring compliance
effective communication helps to spread awareness among citizens
Turnaround times was improved
Effective employee training was provided
Reduction is cost for citizens because visits to government office were reduced and
brides were also reduced
24 X 7 access point was available
Access points for citizens include brick and mortar service centers
call centers provide citizens the convenience to track the status of their service
over phone
Government revenue leakages were reduced
Service procedures were simplified
Data complication capability and real time analytics was available.