THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Though Chief Secretary V P Joy said he was “amazed” by the Gujarat chief minister’s dashboard during his visit to Gandhi Nagar, records show that Kerala has not been behind any other state in terms of e-governance. A number of e-governance initiatives including 471 dynamic dashboards to track 578 services have already been implemented in the state.
Kerala’s achievements in e-governance have been lauded by various agencies in the IT sector. Initiatives such as tele-health, single-window clearance (KSWIFT) of industries department and Cyberdome of Kerala Police and Kerala CM’s website have won multiple awards at the national level.
A high internet penetration and smart phone use have made Kerala a leading state in providing government services online and the authorities have announced a scheme to serve an increasingly digital society. A dashboard is an aggregator of data related to a particular department or service on a digital platform. It got huge public attention during Covid pandemic times when the dashboard operated by the health department became one source of information about the situation in the state.
The government integrated all dashboards of various departments under one portal -- https://dashboard.kerala.gov.in -- on October 2, 2021. It now has 471 dashboards out of the 578 services offered in the state.
“We have plans to add more features to enable ease of access to the public. The dashboard of the revenue department is the most comprehensive one that provides information from the grass-root level. Apart from dashboards, the citizens can file applications online and get online services on mobile applications,” said an officer.
As per the data with the IT department, various departments have made 135 procurements worth more than Rs 12 crore from startup companies since the government introduced a conducive policy in 2017. Public Works Minister P A Mohamed Riyas has been using an intelligent interactive panel to track all projects in his department.
While the CM’s dashboard in Gujarat is useful in tracking big-ticket projects, the e-governance tool used by KIIFB that oversees almost all major infra projects in the state is also equally efficient, point out officials. It has approved funding for close to 1,000 projects worth Rs 70,000 crore, covering all vital sectors like healthcare, education, transportation, water supply and power supply.
“I don’t understand why the chief secretary of Kerala which has made achievements in IT and e-governance go to Gujarat to study the possibility of a dashboard. It is nothing but an attempt to make the prime minister happy. But why? Is it because you feel threatened about something or the state gets some reward?” asked Joseph C Mathew, the then IT adviser to former chief minister V S Achuthanandan.
According to him, the visit gave campaign material for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP to say that Kerala is here to study the Gujarat model of development in an election year when CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and others praise the Kerala model which must be emulated by other states.