We invited people’s participation by launching a competition for naming the Act, slogan and a logo, which is meaningful and effective. Thousands of people participated in the competition. The name Sakala, which means ‘in time’ or ‘good time’ was finally selected. Then we selected a slogan ‘No more delays, We deliver on time’. The logo with a ‘Justice Hammer with a stop watch’ is a symbolic indication to say that those who fail to deliver on time will be answerable.
— DV Sadananda Gowda, Chief Minister of Karnataka
Karnataka Guarantee of Services Act - Sakala is the new buzzword in the State ever since it was introduced from April 2, this year. The scheme, cutting across all sections of the society, has got tremendous response. What is amazing is that the government officials too responded to the citizens and cleared nearly 99 per cent of these applications. In the first month itself, 10 lakh people availed of the facility. In an interview with S Rajashekara of the Sunday Standard, Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda spoke about Sakala in detail and said that this was one of the best schemes he had seen in his political life.
Excerpts.
What was the idea behind introducing Sakala?
After assuming the office, I was flooded with thousands of petitions from people from all walks of life. A majority of them, say around 50 to 60 per cent, were related to routine matters like getting a certificate, obtaining land record extracts, among others. Citizens had no means to ensure timely delivery. This made me to deliberate on bringing in some reforms to end people waiting at the mercy of officials to get their work done. As a result, we decided to introduce The Karnataka Guarantee of Services Act – Sakala, guaranteeing delivery of citizen services. This is one of the finest schemes in my entire political life, encompassing all sections of the society without any targeted group or vote bank like many of the government schemes.
Once you decided to bring in a Legislation, what were the challenges faced in implementing it?
I discussed the idea with Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Suresh Kumar. He also showed keen interest and we had several rounds of informal talks on the subject. Initially, there were some glitches on how to go about it and how to ensure proper implementation. Finally, it was decided to get a copy of a similar Legislation from Bihar. Kumar studied the Act in detail. Then a delegation led by him and comprising senior officials like additional chief secretary K Jairaj and Dr Shalini Rajneesh visited Patna to get a first hand information on how the act had been implemented. Once the team returned from Bihar, they drafted the rules to ensure comprehensive coverage of services under the act. The end result was Sakala.
How is the concept different from the one in Bihar?
In Bihar and Punjab, the available services are minimum; around 40 to 50 services. In Karnataka, we have 151 services made available covering 11 departments. Secondly, we have a feedback system and response system. Once the delivery of services is made, the concerned persons would be informed through SMS.
How has the response been?
The response has been tremendous. We received more than one lakh applications after it was introduced as a pilot project on March 1 in four talukas of Five revenue districts (Aurad in Bijapur, Chitradurga, Dharwad, Puttur and Bangalore’s Jayanagar). To be precise, we received 1,63,00 applications out of which 1,25,000 applications have been disposed. This means 99 per cent of applications were addressed on time. After the state-wise launch on April 2, we have received over 10 lakh applications and we were able to address over 8 lakh applications on time. Maximum applications received are from the revenue department (50 per cent of the total applications), Transport (24 per cent), Commercial Tax (15 per cent), and Urban Development Department (10 per cent). Out of 151 services, maximum applications are received for caste certificate, income certificate, residence certificate, driving licence and vehicle registration.
What are the measures taken to ensure effective implementation?
The first thing that we did was to train the personnel at the Administrative Training Institute, Mysore. The government officials and their associations wholeheartedly supported the Act as it gives them an opportunity to prove that majority of them are sincere and hardworking. The Act is being implemented in Mission Mode. Sakala Mission has been put into place to work full time towards implementation of the Act. The mission director and additional director are IAS officers who are assisted by IT and IIM professionals. The mission monitors, guides, coordinates as a single window. We have put in all the hardware and software from state level to village offices to capture all applications in a single portal www.sakala.kar.nic.in. Deputy Commissioners have been made chief nodal officers at the district level and the information department is running awareness programmes. We have also mobilised certain NGOs and consumer group participation. Besides this, academic inputs from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC) and National Institute of Advanced Science (NIAS) and Fiscal policy Institute (FPI) has been solicited.
How do you monitor the progress made by Sakala?
We have set up a call centre with the number 080-44554455 which is operational from 9 am to 6 pm on all working days. We have received over 20,000 complaints on the services notified. All the data is automatically updated onto the Sakala website and one can see the progress made, department-wise and month-wise. We also send a SMS to the citizens. Help desks would soon be set up at taluka and district headquarters.
What is penalty mechanism if officers fail to deliver a service in a specified time?
Once the application for any service is submitted, the officers have to deliver within a specified time frame. If they fail, a penalty of Rs 20 is slapped for every additional day. The maximum penalty is Rs 500 and in such a case, even if the service is delivered, necessary action would be taken against the concerned officials.
How many services have been included in Sakala?
As on date, we have rolled 151 services including birth certificate, FIRs, caste certificate, income certificate, driving license, vehicle registration among others.
Many services like enrollment 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 are yet to be utilised.
Will you be looking at expanding the number of services on Sakala?
By the end of this year, we are hoping to add another 30 to 40 critical services to the existing 151 and we are confident of achieving it. We expect to cater to about 15 lakh people per month with more awareness generation.