Birth & death certificates through WhatsApp soon

Vijayawada: Chief Secretary K Vijayanand said that the State government would soon provide WhatsApp governance services to the people, in line with the objectives of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

As part of this, people will soon be able to obtain birth and death certificates via WhatsApp. He further mentioned that a pilot project would be launched in Tenali this month to explore this process.

A review meeting regarding the process of issuing birth and death certificates through WhatsApp was held at the Real-Time Governance Society (RTGS) office at the Secretariat at Velagapudi on Monday.

The Chief Secretary emphasised that the Chief Minister aims to make government services more accessible and convenient for citizens by introducing WhatsApp governance. He urged RTGS officials and relevant department officials to speed up the process.

Vijayanand stated that providing birth and death certificates through WhatsApp is crucial, and the work related to this must be initiated promptly. He advised that steps be taken to ensure these services are delivered to the public seamlessly, without any issues at the field level.

He suggested that Tenali be used as a test site to identify any potential challenges and technical issues in the process. These issues should be carefully studied and addressed to ensure the system’s smooth implementation.

He also instructed the departments of Panchayat Raj, Health and Medical and Municipal Administration to extend full cooperation to RTGS officials for the successful implementation of this initiative.

S Suresh Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of RTG, confirmed that all necessary preparations for WhatsApp governance have been made. He assured that they were taking all measures to avoid any flaws in the process of issuing birth and death certificates through WhatsApp at the field level.

K Dinesh Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, RTGS, stated that by this month, they will assess the technical process of issuing birth and death certificates through WhatsApp in all the panchayats and municipalities of the Tenali area.

To facilitate this, RTGS has developed a portal under the Andhra Pradesh Civil Registration System (APCRS). This portal will integrate all birth and death registration data. They are also actively working on setting up a data lake. Once a certificate is generated, an immediate WhatsApp message will be sent to the relevant citizen, and they will also be able to download the certificate directly via WhatsApp.

The meeting was attended by M T Krishna Babu, Special Chief Secretary, Department of Health, K Kannababu, Secretary of Municipal Administration, A. Suryakumari, Director of Women and Child Welfare, Krishna Teja, Director of Panchayat Raj, and Shiva Prasad, Director of Village Secretariat Department, among others.