Sakala Karnataka to Guarantee Government Services
Sakala, which means ‘in time’ or ‘good time’ is the citizen charter scheme which was recently launched and has hogged the limelight of Bangalore. This scheme was initiated on a pilot basis in four taluks including Jayanagar by bringing 151 civil services under the citizen charter scheme. Consequently, it will be flourished to all the districts in Karnataka.
Sakala has created a smile on people’s face by making most of their legal tasks easier and in a jiffy. Likewise, a person under the Sakala scheme will be issued with a birth certificate in just three days. The main aim behind the initiation of Sakala is to deliver services to the citizens in a stipulated time. This policy was applied to 57 government departments which will be servicing the common man.
The launch of Sakala has given a hope to people and the senior officials feel that this was one of the favourable changes seen among the subordinates. A survey was conducted on the success of Sakala and it was found out that 87% citizens were benefited with this policy.
Talking about the people’s usage of this policy, there have been calls to Sakala from faraway districts like Bidar, Belgaum and Bijapur. The authorities received about 2,773 calls which were related to BBMP Bangalore works, issuing of ration cards by the food and civil supplies department and the issues related to the revenue department.
Initially the launch of the Sakala scheme got a cold response from the public as the people were not aware of its uses completely and had a misconception about it. People were reluctant to avail offers from the Sakala like plan approvals for residential buildings, even though the constructions were on full swing. However, the BBMP officials are now taking initiatives to make the citizens aware of the Sakala services.
Aim of Sakala
The main aim of the introduction of Sakala was to cater to various services like acquiring certificates, obtaining land record extracts, building plan approvals and others. All of these activities consumed a lot of people’s time and in order to curb that, The Karnataka Guarantee of Services Act – Sakala was introduced. This will guarantee the delivery of citizen services in a short span of time.
Awareness of Sakala
To make people aware of these services the government is planning to introduce an online application system for Sakala services from next month. This will be done by making the citizens and the officials aware about the system’s functioning. This scheme will also be equipped with many other services like the social security pension schemes.
Public meetings will be held in each of the assembly constituencies to make people aware about the services with a workshop being held for all the 198 corporators of Bangalore. Sakala will be made more user-friendly and the helpline numbers will be increased to provide more services.
The launch of Sakala
Sakala will be live online in a month’s time in order to cater to the services based on the complaints by people. Apart from the helpline for queries related to Sakala, a non-Sakala helpline will also be set up for any public grievances. Since it is the beginning, the overall pace of the people’s response is lower than what was expected. This is due to the unawareness of Sakala amongst the public.
In order to cater to more services the government has decided to introduce more number of services at a faster pace. It is also decided that the RTI (Right to Information) will come under Sakala from the end of this month. Another service which is on the way to be included other than the death and birth certificates is the pension service. Currently the total numbers of services included under Sakala are 152. Services like FIRs, caste certificate, income certificate, driving license, vehicle registration, enrolment of children in Aganwadi Centres, Grant of Trade Licence and Building plan approval from municipal bodies, water supply and underground drainage connections from Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Registration for schools, opening new Pre-University Colleges and others will be included too.
The area of concern in Sakala is the building plan approvals. Since the real estate in Bangalore is on a high rise, it is mandatory for Sakala to have major services related to real estate. The surprising fact was that there were only 58 applications of building plan approvals received for the sanction of house plan for up to 2,400 square feet area. Adding on to it Sakala also witnessed that there were only 58 houses which were under construction, which proves that not many people were coming forward to seek a building plan sanction approval under Sakala.
How to use Sakala?
There are official sites explaining on how to use Sakala. Follow the link to view the page http://164.100.80.21/kgsc3/gsc_home.aspx. The instructions are given in the regional language with a tagline stating ‘Karnataka Guarantee of services to citizens systems’. The instructions are given in the form of slides wherein the first slide has been explained with all the types of services which are offered. The next slides tell them about the categories and the listed services. For any assistance the phone numbers are mentioned along with cheque services and a helpline number along with the gallery. The website is maintained by the government officials.
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