“𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭”
STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta has said that there is no chance of corruption in the Union Territory now as all services have been made online.
He said various schemes and platforms have brought transparency in the system which has ensured that no money can be withdrawn fraudulently from the public exchequer.
“We have taken the initiative of making all services online. The aim is to create a corruption-free environment. Earlier it was said that out of one rupee, less than 10 paise would reach the ground. Today such a system has been created where the entire rupee reaches the ground,” the officer told reporters after launching the ‘Bhrashtachar Mukt J-K’ campaign here.
No money can be withdrawn without administrative approval, technical approval, e-tendering and geospatial photography, he said.
Mehta said there were still some complaints of malpractices which the administration is working to address.
“Our aim is to address the remaining complaints as well. The government is doing whatever possible, but the people also have to come forward and support this initiative to build a corruption-free society,” he added.
The chief secretary said the Jammu and Kashmir administration was trying to become number one in governance in the country.
“We have made a lot of progress in many sectors. Now we want to be number one in governance as well. We are number one in IT services and are doing well in several other sectors too,” he said.
On reinstatement of lecturer Zahoor Ahmad Bhat who had appeared as petitioner-in-person before the Supreme Court bench hearing Article 370 petitions, Mehta said, “Let’s leave it at that.” The Chief Secretary said digitalisation has vastly improved the public delivery of services and the development in Srinagar has been due to it.
“Digital is empowering people and digitalisation is ensuring that there is no corruption. Digital is the way forward and digital is also the way to make J-K future ready. Whatever development you are seeing in Srinagar – we are making Srinagar digital and future ready,” he told reporters.
He asserted that the development in Srinagar was because of digitalisation.
“Srinagar has never been like this before as Dal Lake, Lal Chowk and Polo View market have been improved and this has been possible only because of digitalisation. We have unleashed the power of digital and it has led to the power of huge improvement in the way public delivery (of services) happens,” he added.
Asked about the rising unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir, Mehta said people were basing their comments on unverified data.
“Those unaware of the data keep making unverified statements. Self employment in 2022-2023 and in 2021 -2022 has been three lakhs in each year. That means six lakh self employment. Four years earlier, these numbers were only 40,000. The difference between these numbers is in the intentions,” he added.
Owais Mukhtar from the Jammu and Kashmir Bank said the mission of the bank is to digitise all the accounts in J-K.
“We have already achieved 80 percent digitisation in our accounts which means 80 percent of the population banking with J-K Bank have digital mode – ATM card, mobile banking or e-banking. Our mission this week is to take this percentage to 90 percent and in coming months we are targeting at 100 percent of digitisation of these accounts,” Mushtaq said.