Sakala which guarantees as many as 151 services to citizens within a stipulated time, crossed its first milestone in May, when 8.5 lakh applications were disposed off in the first month after the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act, 2011, was implemented.
On Friday, law and parliamentary affairs minister S. Suresh Kumar, who released the first monthly performance report on Sakala said, “At least 10 to 15 lakh applications are expected to pour in every month and we will be monitoring each of the 11 departments extending about 151 services. Soon, we will monitor RTI applications reaching these departments too.
To bring in reforms to Sakala we need effective feedback from citizens. For this, we have partnered with citizen groups and institutions to popularise Sakala through setting up help desks, seminars, advertisements and street plays,”
The Sakala data helps provide insights into the various service delivery mechanisms and loopholes in the system.
This time, the data for April-May revealed that the revenue department received the highest number of applications (4,18,447), which accounts for 40 per cent of the total number of applications received during the period.
The least sought after departments were Food and Civil Supplies, Education and Health and Family Welfare.
Shalini Rajnish, DPAR secretary said, “The call centre (44554455) for Sakala received 23,000 calls this month, but only four calls were related to Sakala.
The other calls were made mostly for general queries (41%), procedure enquiries (31%) and related to the Act (21%).
Some of the reasons for poor or delayed disposal are inadequate staff, lack of co-ordination between different agencies and the nature of petitions which need special treatment.”
While, all 30 districts were ranked for their performance in receipt and disposal of applications, Mandya topped the list by receiving the highest number of applications - 1,520 per lakh population and Bijapur saw the least number of applications – 687. Dharwad and Chitradurga registered the highest disposal rate of 85 per cent.
followed by Dakshina Kannada (83%) and Mandya (82%). While, Davangere, Bidar, Tumkur and Chikmaglur had a poor disposal rate (below 65 per cent).