Dial 161 to avail govt, pvt services on mobile phone

Now, dial 161 and get a host of government and private services on your cellphone.
The State government’s ambitious Karnataka Mobile-One initiative will be launched by President Pranab Mukherjee on December 8. Official invite for the event, to be held at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), has been crafted to look like a smart phone. An embedded chip in the invite is automatically switched on as soon as you open the invite issued to the media.

A recorded message of Siddaramaiah starts playing “Dear citizens of the State. I am your Chief Minister Siddaramaiah speaking. I am delighted to announce the launch of mobile governance of  Government of Karnataka. The President of India has consented to launch Karnataka mobile-one. Karnataka mobile governance project is the first of its kind in the country bringing governance to your fingertips by dialling 161. To start with, there will be over 4,000 government and private services available and many more services will be added. I invite you to be a part of the path-breaking initiative.”

The services, which will be available in the first phase, will include electricity, water, BSNL telephone bill payment, paying traffic fines, information services, updates in status of applications, traffic alerts, query on bus timings among others. A smartphone is not necessarily required to access the services.

Once you dial 161, you are connected to an interactive voice response system (IVRS). You have the option to choose from utilities, traffic, municipal taxes, telecom, partner service, services in other sectors and help desk. If you choose utilities, you can opt for services from various public utilities like Bescom, BWSSB, Hescom. To avail the services of a particular utility, say BWSSB, you will have to register your mobile number (one time registration) by sending an SMS.

‘Partner services’ available at present on the platform are Babajob (you will get access to the country’s largest informal job portal), next drop (where you can get information on water supply in your area), Microsoft jumpstart (where you can get real-time business advice). Services in other sectors, include accessing web-page services for travel plans, passport registration among others.

Official sources said Siddaramaiah has been personally monitoring the progress of the project and is keen that it becomes one of the flagship programmes of his government.