Aiming at mainstreaming mobile governance as a compelling new paradigm for the delivery of public services, Punjab Government on Sunday announced that it will integrate ‘Mobile Seva’ scheme in its all departments. Five departments from the State have already integrated their services with ‘Mobile Seva’, details of which could be seen online from the ‘Department Service’ tab on www.mgov.gov.in, said an official spokesperson of the State Government.
He said that the State Government has decided that SMS services will be offered “free of cost” to the Government departments during the current duration of the ‘Mobile Seva’ project. “Mobile Seva is a countrywide initiative on mobile governance that aims to enable all Government departments and agencies to provide services on various mobile channels such as short message service (SMS), integrated voice response system (IVRS), unstructured supplementary service data and mobile applications,” he said.
“Over 1,050 departments or agencies across Central, State and local Governments have adopted ‘Mobile Seva’and more than 335 public services are live through the short codes — 51969 and 166, and long codes — 9223166166,” he said. “A Government mobile app store has been made operational at www.apps.mgov.gov.in with 300 live and fully integrated mobile apps,” he added.
The initiative by the Central Government aims at mainstreaming mobile governance in the country as a compelling new paradigm for delivery of public services electronically through the mobile platform. Government departments and agencies at the central, state and local levels touch over 1.2 billion citizens in their day-to-day lives, he said. Implementation of the ‘Seva’ is expected to bring all these Government departments and agencies on to this common platform and reach over 900 million mobile subscribers in the country with public services, he said.