Sakaala apathy irks Karnataka minister S Suresh Kumar

Eight years after the government introduced the Sakaala scheme to make public services more transparent, several departments have received zero applications, Sakaala Minister S Suresh Kumar lamented on Thursday.

Launched in 2012, Sakaala or the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act, promises delivery of government services within a stipulated time. Kumar was instrumental in its launch.

In a review meeting, Kumar found that even though there were 758 services available under Sakaala, many had not received any applications.

Expressing concern about this, he sought to know whether it was a result of the public not filing applications for services under the scheme or if it was because officials were accepting applications outside Sakaala's purview.

There was also an increase in rejected and pending applications at district and taluk-levels. Owing to this, people were unable to avail services on time.

Panels at dist level

The government will constitute two committees at the district-level to resolve this situation.

A coordination committee will be constituted and district officials have to give a report to Sakaala Mission every Monday. Teams will also be formed to look into pending and rejected applications every Saturday, Kumar said.

Kumar himself will review the progress every fortnight.

At present, 1,807 appeals to applications are pending. As of January 2021, Chikkamagalur, Chikkaballapur and Shivamogga are the top three performing districts under the programme.

Bengaluru Urban remains the least performing district with more than 11,876 applications pending. Belagavi and Mysuru are the other two districts with poor implementation, he added.

Chief secretary P Ravi Kumar, who was part of the review meeting, assured that district incharge secretaries would be asked to monitor it strictly.