K-Smart, the online platform set to be launched on January 1 in urban local bodies in Kerala, will replace all the major existing stand-alone websites for government services and promises a more integrated, user-friendly experience. It will integrate nine major citizen services including civil registration (issuing of birth, death and marriage certificates), issuing of building permits, trade licences, payment of property taxes and public grievance redressal, bringing down drastically the time taken in getting some of these services.
A highlight of the mobile application which is part of the K-Smart platform will be a Geographic Information System (GIS)-enabled ‘Know your land’ service using which the user can ascertain the suitability of a particular land for construction activities and check whether it falls under any restricted zone, be it Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), airport, railway or eco-sensitive zone.
Height and setbacks
Once provided the proper coordinates of the land, the application will also suggest the maximum possible height of construction and the setbacks that need to be provided. This feature is expected to be useful for those purchasing land for construction purposes.
Building permits for low-risk buildings below 10 metres in height can be obtained online immediately. For high-risk buildings, different levels of inspections will be required, but the clearing of the application will have to be done within the stipulated time if all the conditions are satisfied. A majority of the building permit applications for housing at local bodies would come under the low-risk category.
For marriage certificates, the couple need not visit the registrar’s office. It can be done through videoconferencing from anywhere in the world. They will be made to read a dynamic text and answer a few questions for authentication purposes. The digital certificate will be issued soon on WhatsApp.
Integration since 2017
“The Information Kerala Mission was formed during the People’s Plan, around 25 years ago. Even in those early days, the Mission was able to develop a number of applications for various services, some of which we have been using till recently. The process of integrating all these started 2017 onwards. The implementation of the Integrated Local Self-Governance Management System (ILGMS) in all grama panchayats was one of the steps. However, we needed a more advanced platform-based application like K-Smart to handle a number of services and to take it to the next level of predictive governance,” Santosh Babu, Chairman and Managing Director of the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) told The Hindu.
After some initial hiccups, the current version of K-Smart was developed by a team of 100 members over the past 100 days at a development facility in Kuravankonam in the capital. Two State governments have already evinced interest in the application, one of which is expected to sign an MoU soon.
