THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After e-governance and e-literacy aimed at bridging the digital divide, Kerala is embarking on m-Governance that will help improve service delivery using cell phones.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan last week opened the innovative health project “Dr. SMS” in Kozhikode, where another SMS program was launched recently to know the movement of revenue files. Claimed to be a first in India, the facilities will soon be available across the state, according to the officials at the state’s IT Mission. The program is part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
They define m-Government as the strategy involving the utilization of all kinds of wireless and mobile technology, services, applications and devices for improving benefits for citizens, businesses and government agencies.
“Dr. SMS” will enable people to use their mobile phones to get information on health resources and to provide the user with a comprehensive list of medical facilities available in their locality like hospitals with specialties in the areas they want or the individual doctors whom they can call.
“The uniqueness of the project is that a person can get specific information on the availability of medical specialty through the service,” said District Collector Dr A. Jayathilak. “People are tech savvy and mobile penetration is very high in Kerala.” The service can be accessed by sending SMS to 9446460600: health pin code facility; (for example: health 673004 heart). The reply will give you the name of the hospital with facilities for treating heart diseases near your place, its address and phone number.
If you send an SMS, health hospital name, you will get a reply providing you with the hospital number, facilities and specialties available. If you want to check whether a particular specialty is there in a particular hospital, you can type health hospital name facility, to get a reply with the telephone number of the hospital and the facility available.
Similarly, the public can send SMS to a dedicated number (9446460600) in a specific format comprising the file number, year and the district code to know the status of their file at the revenue department. The file tracking system is already in place in Palakkad and Kannur districts besides Kozhikode .
The government plans to launch 20 m-governance for services offered by eight departments that will then be “accessible to the citizens in the field, on the street, at home or any convenient locations on a 24 X 7 basis” without visiting the government offices.
Sectors like power, transport, public examinations, films, water, are all coming under the network in the next phase.
