K'taka: District, state-level offices to go paperless

Come January 1, the district and the state-level offices in the state will go paperless. The eOffice platform, designed to enhance transparency and increase accountability, will be implemented in the offices of all heads of departments, regional commissioners, deputy commissioners, deputy conservator of forests and others.

Henceforth, it will be mandatory for all government officials and its staff to apply or approve leaves using a digital platform.

eOffice, which was implemented on a pilot basis in a few government offices, was also adopted by the Chief Ministers’ Office recently. As many of 46 offices in the Secretariat - of the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, Development Commissioners and others are using the platform, which will be compulsory for all district-level offices.

Speaking to DH, V Manjula, Additional Chief Secretary to Government (DPAR), said that currently 218 offices, including offices in the Secretariat, were using the platform. “Few offices of Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police are using the platform. From January 1, it will be mandatory for all regional and district-level offices of various departments and their affiliated units,” she said.

“Preparations were afoot since May, this year, to ensure that the platform is adopted from January 2020. The platform, apart from empowering government officials to work on the go, also helps in monitoring the progress of files they are working on,” she said.

Sources said that around 1,000 offices will adopt the system from the beginning of next year and training for the same had been completed in most districts.

The platform also promises to increase the pace of inter and intra-departmental movement of files. According to data available, a total of 218 various government offices created 4.50 lakh files during the pilot, and generated 24.22 lakh e-receipts on the movement of files.

The eOffice platform consists of e-File - used to upload and track various files across departments, KMS - knowledge management system that stores files, e-Leave - to apply, approve or track leave status and Personnel Information Management System among others.