Kiran Kumar Reddy inaugurates a video-conference facility that percolates to the mandal level.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday inaugurated a video-conference facility that percolates to the mandal level, at the Secretariat.
The Chief Minister also participated in the commemoration of the event of Mee Seva crossing 3 crore transactions and reaching 225 services.
With this, Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in India to provide high definition video-conferencing facility upto the mandal level. The Chief Minister said that the facility would help the government conduct multilevel video-conferencing with no loss of time.
It may be recalled here that Andhra Pradesh is the first state to have a video-conference system in the country, when it was set up way back in 2000, upto the district level.
The Chief Minister said that now, the video-conferencing facility connects the state capital with 23 districts and 1,126 mandal offices, including all RDO offices in the state, Chief Planning offices and all project directors of ITDAs in the state.
The CM said this would bring transparency to the government's functioning and in taking administration to the people's doorsteps. "This will help the government, the district administration and the people, particularly for cyclone, drought and flood relief works and preparedness," he said. He added that it will help in regular monitoring and review of welfare schemes and e-Governance projects.
Kiran Kumar Reddy said that AP was adjudged as the best state in governance by India Today recently. "This was mostly due to e-Governance initiatives, and more so the Mee Seva and video-conferencing facilities," he said.
He said that every officer and staff member is part of this successful initiative.
He added that with this facility, the government can now periodically review various welfare programs and other initiatives, and its implementation at the mandal-level. He said that the government would arrange a regular program soon in this regard.
The CM later talked to the Kalikiri MRO and the Jangaon MRO through the video-conferencing facility from the Secretariat, and enquired about how many petitions each had received today, with it being the "petitions day".
Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the Mee Seva program was launched in Chittoor District on 4-11-2011 as an online facility to provide convenient access to citizens, preventing the need of middlemen and visits to multiple government offices.
"Due to increasing demand for Mee Seva services, the centres were increased from 400 in 2011 to 7,000 in 2013 thereby providing employment to more than 12,000 youth. Every request made by citizens is being closely monitored and tracked so that it is delivered within the citizen charter limits," he said.
The services offered at Mee Seva pertain to certificates and licences from the departments of Revenue, Registration, Municipality, Civil Supplies, Police, Power, Transport, Education, Agriculture, Labour, Mines & Geology, Aadhaar, Election, Industries & Commerce, IT&C, Social Welfare, School Education, Healthcare and others.
The Chief Minister complimented the IT&C department for the video-conferencing facility, and directed all state officials concerned to utilise this facility to the maximum.
Minister for IT&C Ponnala Lakshmiah spoke about various initiatives of the IT department, like the AP Data Centre Phase-II and Phase-III projects. Secretary of IT&C Sanjay Jaju also spoke. (INN)