6 days Ago By Aneesa PA
Thiruvananthapuram: Providing information on a plot of land to allowing registration of marriage from anywhere in the world, Kerala local self-government department’s e-governance platform K-SMART is set to go “rural” from Thursday with an upgraded domain and new features. Developed by Information Kerala Mission (IKM), the initial version of K-SMART or Kerala Solution for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation was launched on 1 January, 2024 in 93 urban local bodies of the state. From Thursday, the portal’s services will be available to all local bodies of the state, including those in rural ideas.
Kerala has a total of 941 village panchayats, 152 block panchayats and 14 district panchayats. K-SMART digitises and consolidates various local government services into a mobile-accessible platform that can also be accessed by non-resident Keralites. New features in the portal include ‘know your land’, which would provide spatial data associated with a particular plot, online marriage registration and a facility to file a mass petition.
The platform can also be used to access civil registration documents such as birth, death and marriage certifications, payment of property and professional tax and for getting licences for businesses. The public can also check the status of various applications. It further enables officials to conduct field visits using data through the app.
Dr Santhosh Babu, IAS and director of IKM, an autonomous institution under the local self-government department, said in a media interaction that uploading the past files of each department into the system was a challenging task. He further said the platform was developed in-house, unlike what is done in many other states for similar platforms, and was put together by 100 developers who worked on it for two years. “We are expecting some glitches in the initial days as the software is going live in over 1,000 local bodies at once.
But we will monitor this transition period closely, and a rapid response team will address each issue faced by the public and local bodies,” he added. According to the IKM, the K-SMART app received 33.19 lakh applications in the last year, of which 75 percent were approved.
Of the total applications, 1,63,699 were approved during public holidays, and 3,50,659 were approved outside office hours. Dr K.P.
Noufal, deputy director of IKM, said the upgraded portal and new features were made going by public demand and requests. “With the launch of the new portal, transparency will reach its zenith,” Noufal added. The upgraded portal is scheduled to be inaugurated Thursday by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and minister for local self-governments M.
B. Rajesh in capital Thiruvananthapuram. Also Read: God’s own country is high on MDMA.
Kerala school, college students flood rehabs Set to cover the entire state, the K-SMART platform will have key features that are said to be one-of-a-kind in India. For example, ‘know your land’ will provide information regarding a particular plot using spatial data. Once a user uploads details of the location through GPS, the application will check if the land is permitted for construction activities adhering to regulations relating to coastal regulation zone, railway and airport zones, eco-sensitives areas, as well as its vulnerability to natural disasters.
The application will also provide information regarding the maximum height of structure the builder is allowed to construct in the particular area and the setback requirements. Setback rules specify the distance between a building and its boundary according to the region to ensure safety, ventilation and privacy. The building permission module of K-SMART can also be used to verify if the plan for a building has been prepared according to the existing rules and regulations.
Another feature called ‘my building’ will provide information such as door number, tax amount and details regarding a building without breaching the privacy of the owner, according to IKM. Yet another new feature of K-SMART allows the registration of marriages, including those under the Special Marriage Act, from anywhere in the world. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: Why Kerala’s Catholic bishops are throwing their weight behind Waqf Amendment Bill var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.
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