As part of its efforts to further the use of Information Technology in streamlining the delivery of services by local self-government bodies, Information Kerala Mission (IKM) is gearing up to extend e-payment facilities to more local bodies.
“Kasargod will be the first municipality to have this facility from October 12. Since then, tax payers in the municipality will be able to pay land and property tax online,” M. Shamsuddin, Executive Chairman and Director of IKM, told The Hindu .
Manjeswaram panchayat is likely to be the next to introduce the e-payment facility. At present, it is in force in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode corporations.
“More local bodies will be added to the list as and when they complete the entry of data, which will be saved at the Kerala State Data Centre,” Mr. Shamsuddin said. The data entered by operators will be subjected to two layers of authentication – one by the authorities of the local body concerned and the other by the quality assurance team from IKM.
The e-payment facility is driven by the software, Sanjaya, developed by IKM. Mr. Shamsuddin was confident of tiding over the shortage of manpower at IKM in rolling out its various initiatives. “At present, a technical assistant from IKM attends to as many as seven panchayats. This means that they have to go to another panchayat even as they are attending to the affairs of some other panchayat,” he said.
Online certificates
Meanwhile, IKM is working to expand the coverage period for civil registration whereby birth, death, and marriage certificates will be available online. As of now, certificates for the period between 2001 and 2011 are available online, print outs of which can be taken from the website of IKM. The idea is to make available online certificates dating back up to 1970, Mr. Shamsuddin said.
About 400 kiosks have been set up in hospitals in such a way as to cover the entire local bodies in the State for registering births and deaths. Mr. Shamsuddin, however, feels that large sections of the public are as yet unaware of the fact that these certificates are just a click away.
“We are planning a massive campaign to create awareness among the public,” he said.
