Most of the government departments in the country are unidirectional. They don’t engage public. But Karnataka’s Minority Welfare department is different. It has launched a 24*7 helpline number 82777 99990, where anyone can call anytime, register their complain and also record the conversation. Their grievances are solved between 7 days to one months based on the scheme wise deadline, set by the department. 

Actually the KMWD embarked on three reforms which are ‘Engaging the public and having a two-way conversation and redressing their grievances, both online and offline’, ‘Transparency: Open office and Dashboards in real-time’ and ‘Partnering with civil society on improving the schools’. The officers, led by Captain Manivannan, Secretary Minority Welfares went into the nuts and bolts to implement these initiatives. 

It started with the launch of 24×7 public engagement cell, from the PMJVK funds. It handled real-time conversation with the public. Till now, around 1,29,000 issues regarding scholarship, loan pension, have been resolved.  A centralized control room has been set up and each complaint are closed only when the complainant is fully satisfied. 

“This has helped us to know people’s issues. There is a difference between what we presume and the reality. Earlier we were aware of 60% of the actual situation but now we fully know and act accordingly. The gap has been bridged”, said Mr. P Manivannan. 

After all this feedback dozens of changes have been implemented in the department. Seven schemes which were being managed manually have now gone online. The department cut its budget by 40% in the last fiscal year without a protest. “I presume that it is because of the services we provide. We have made people happy”, he adds. 

MONTHLY REVIEW 

Karnataka Minority Welfare’s also organizes a review meeting every third Saturday of the month. Any organisation, institute, NGOs and local representatives can enrol before the meeting through the link generated by the department. “The idea is to seek their suggestions on how we can do better”, said the officer. 

During these meetings the department has sought resolution regarding land, properties and monetary benefits by facilitating open discussions with officers and advisory committee. This forum also enables citizens to provide feedback. 

Based on the feedback the dept worked on Dash boards for major schemes, like PMJVK, which took the granular data and progress to the public. It was appreciated by all and improved the credibility. 

In addition to that, on day to day basis, the files that are cleared by the dept and the pending files were also displayed to public. Anybody can see what files were marked to the secretary and how many were disposed and how many pending with file number and details. This is the FIRST TIME; it’s done in India. Nowhere, no dept of the govt displays this data, which is a mark of the transparency.

Mr. Manivannan says that purpose of governance fails if it lacks transparency. His team in both the department is ensuring a transparent communication between the government and people. 

NO HASSEL PAYMENT 

Following the similar pattern Mr. P Manivannan is guiding the Social Welfare department to achieve same kind of transparency too. The initial steps have already been taken. 

Earlier when any scheme is leased to any contractor, ad hoc used to be the norm. This problem has been solved by the ‘Sphatik’ software. Now, the contractor doesn’t need to meet with officers or any staff. He or she can upload his bill on the software and payment would be made without hassel. 

Mr. Manivannan says that soon they will make this public too so everyone can see what & how things go.