Implementation of “Janbhagidari Empowerment” portal in Jammu and Kashmir is a candid reflection of concern and commitment of Lieutenant Governor Administration towards empowering people through a more responsive, transparent and accountable governance with vigorous public participation.
The portal, a sequel to government’s endeavor of facilitating people to the utmost through digital platforms, would enable the general masses have an insight into the status of development works being executed in their areas under schemes like MGNREGA, Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural), Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), PM Awas Yojana and PM Gram Sadak Yojana.
The Empowerment (Enabling Monitoring of Public Overview of Works Being Executed and Resources for Meaningful Transparency) portal is a web gateway hosting all the works being executed under the capex component of UT budget and can also be accessed through BEAMS website of Finance department.
The objective of this initiative is to ensure that every citizen should be able to view every detail about the nature and extent of works under execution in his or her area or any part of the Union Territory. This initiative would be reviewed continuously for incorporation of needed improvements based on the feedback of general public.
The government has urged upon the people to utilize the information available on this portal to help the administration bring about greater responsiveness and accountability besides ensuring greater participation of stakeholders in the process of development taking place in their area.
The portal is an interactive and user friendly platform which offers public an opportunity to give their feedback about any of the works going on in J&K resulting effective implementation of development works. Hence, this unique initiative launched by the J&K government enables the citizens to directly participate in the development of their area.
According to an official statement, any person can search for any of the work going on in the UT at village, block or district level to ascertain the status of the development works. The name, cost and position of funds released and expenditure incurred against the said work could be viewed by simply accessing the BEAMS website of the J&K Finance department. Moreover, the portal offers links to view the works under execution under MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojana, Swachh Bharat Mission Urban and Swachh Bharat Mission Rural. These works could be accessed from this portal itself and would include all the works executed throughout J&K under any scheme in the future, as was given out by the officers on the occasion.
Introduction of a slew of major fiscal reforms by the Jammu and Kashmir government has tremendously transformed the financial system in the Union territory paving way for enhanced growth and development in the region.
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, continuing with its overarching digital push has hosted the ‘Janbhagidari Empowerment’ portal on a different server with higher bandwidth for its easy and ready accessibility to the general public. The intervention comes following the concerns relating to the slow speed/ bandwidth issues regarding the portal.
Following the movement of the portal on to a different server, the portal has begun to open quickly enough, improving the whole experience of visiting the portal. Worth to mention, around 70 thousand people have accessed the portal until now and with the increase in the bandwidth, the portal is expected to receive more hits in near future.
With the Empowerment initiative, the cost of execution of public works has also decreased significantly due to better supervision and participation of the public.
“This has freed more funds for execution of newer works and reduced the pressure on the budget.” an official of the Finance Department said. He added that with the launch of the Portal, the quality of works viz technology and durability has increased manifold.
The initiative has also contributed to the Right to Information by providing all the information related to the development of the area with just one click away.
According to the dashboard statistics of Empowerment portal, 77548 works have been executed in 2022-23 registering an expenditure of Rs 511137.05 lakh.
