PM Narendra Modi shows special interest towards Karnataka's "Sakala" system

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had once told a visiting team of Karnataka officials that their state would emerge No 1 in delivery of citizen services, given its strength in information technology. The team, led by minister S Suresh Kumar, wanted to study how Bihar had implemented the programme in a time-bound manner.

Karnataka now appears to be heading that way. After clearing 200 million applications over the last seven years filed under Sakala, the state government aims to take it to the next level with its “paperless, faceless” tech initiatives. The programme, governed by the Karnataka Sakala Services (Amendment) Act, 2014, covers 1,033 services across 91 departments. It works just like the right to information (RTI) system.

According to Kumar, the progress has caught the attention of government think tank Niti Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). “I am happy Niti Aayog has taken note of our work, and collected the information from us. I am told they are thinking on replicating the state’s success at the national level,” Kumar, the minister in charge of Sakala, told ET. “Even the PMO has studied our model.”

An email query sent to Niti Aayog remained unanswered as of press time.

Back then, Kumar was motivated to replicate the programme already in place in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar after he came across the case of a blind person who did not get a critical citizen service because he could not bribe the official. “The then chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda backed me to the hilt, and that is how Karnataka introduced Sakala,” he said.

Karnataka launched the scheme in April 2012, starting with 151 services across 11 departments. The programme did not create much buzz for a long time, but Kumar sounds determined to step up awareness.

“The strike rate (in-time disposal) for the month of September 2019 has been 97.18%,” he said adding that Sakala call centres have been receiving 2,000 calls per day on average.

The minister has announced that he will release a monthly progress report on how taluks, districts and officials have fared in dealing with Sakala requests. On Monday, he named Chikkaballapur, Hassan and Shivamogga as top districts, and Chikkaballapur, Kalaghatagi and Shivamogga as top taluks in Sakala implementation in September.

The head of a department decides if a certain service can be offered under Sakala, and if so, within how many days it can be provided and for what fee. On the chief secretary’s approval, the Sakala Mission notifies the services. While some services are available within a week, many can take as much as seven weeks. In cases where an official defaults on a Sakala commitment, the government will first impose a penalty, and initiate disciplinary action only if the official fails repeatedly. The minister said he would like to see a drop in the proportion of cases of delayed disposal of requests and rejections.

The government is set to strengthen Seva Sindhu — the online avatar of Sakala by incorporating features like e-sign, digi-locker and other tech interfaces. It is integrated with service delivery channels such as Bangalore One and Karnataka One. The online facility covers 301 services across 43 departments, and the government aims to increase the services to 500 by March next year.