Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to deliver 153 citizen services through WhatsApp.
Speaking at the district collectors’ conference, IT minister Nara Lokesh said this was part of the efforts to streamline government services to the public and the information dissemination system via a centralized website.
Giving a presentation at the meeting, he said the problems encountered during the issuance of the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAR) ID in the education department were currently being solved and corrective steps taken.
Addressing the collectors, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu said, “Be friendly with users. We are bringing a system of providing services through WhatsApp for the first time in the country. When new technology becomes available, problems arise. We have to move forward by solving them.”
Lokesh said, currently, only the UAE is providing citizen services on a single platform. “The government information will be included on the official website https://www.ap.gov.in. We are getting set to provide 153 citizen services through WhatsApp.”
AP drone corporation chairman Dinesh Kumar said an agreement was signed with Meta on October 22 this year to provide services to the people through WhatsApp. “Currently, 59 crore people in the country are using WhatsApp. On an average, each person opens WhatsApp on his cell phone 30 times a day.”
Dinesh Kumar said alerting people in times of emergency, sending information to the people in an area where infrastructure is being provided, and providing information on ‘which medicines to use’ and at what time. Farmers registered in this system can be alerted by providing them information on marketing strategies to sell their produce, through WhatsApp messages.
These apart, income, family member certificates, caste and study certificates can be delivered to the people through WhatsApp, he said.
