Mandya on top, Bengaluru at the bottom in citizen service delivery

Bengaluru: An internal assessment of the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens called 'Sakala' has put Mandya on the top while Bengaluru Urban stood last among the districts in providing services to people within the stipulated time. Launched in April 2012, there are presently 1025 services related to 98 departments guaranteed under the Sakala scheme which are provided to the applicants within the time limit. Eight years after the launch of the scheme, the Sakala department carried out the assessment of its performance. The assessment revealed that 22.92 crore applications were received since the launch of the scheme, out of which 22.85 crore applications were disposed of. Based on the number of applications received and disposed of, the department came out with ranking.

Announcing the ranking, Karnataka Minister for Sakala, S Suresh Kumar told reporters on Monday that Mandya, Chikkamagaluru and Chikkaballapura are among the top three districts in providing services under the Sakala scheme within the time limit. On the other hand, Bengaluru urban, Bidar and Raichur are among the least ranked districts in providing services. "This assessment provides an opportunity to the respective districts to improve their citizen-oriented services," Kumar, who also holds the primary and secondary education portfolio, said.

The rankings were announced as the State launched the Sakala week during which period, the departments will have to create awareness among masses. The minister cited three reasons for the poor performance of Sakala, which are not accepting the applications, rejection of applications and delay in providing the service. He said people do not know that there are appellants in each department where people can approach and appeal against the rejection and delay in providing services. Kumar directed the deputy commissioners of the district to conduct a meeting of the Sakala Coordination Committees to analyse the performance of Sakala scheme.