To bridge the gap between the general public and various government departments, as well as redressal of public complaints, the IT researchers and designers have successfully developed apps to digitize five public services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In this connection, a public demo day was held at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Techonology Board (KPITB) incubation space "Durshal", organized by Code of Pakistan organization on Tuesday.
Dawood Khan, Secretary ST& IT was the chief guest on the occasion. Besides, Secretary Directorate of Industries and Commerce, Secretary Tourism Corporation KP, SSP Traffic and CEO Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar also attended the event. KPITB, Code for Pakistan organisation and the World Bank Group's collaborative initiative the "KP Civic Innovation Fellowship Programme" aims to help the government bridge the gap between the general public and various government departments.
The six months long Fellowship programme was launched in March to bring together talented researchers, designers and developers to build apps, increase citizen engagement, improve government service delivery and show the government how to innovate in public services. The officials said that these Fellows have been housed at the KPITB's incubation space "Durshal", which is the first of its kind in the province. KPITB is planning to expand Durshal to 12 other locations across different districts in KP to provide better opportunities to the young graduates and entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.
According to officials, the programme has saved the government over $100,000 (Rs 10 million) through just one of its applications, which once again delivered its promise by digitizing five public services. Ebtihaj, the Programme Manager of the Fellowship programme said, "Cities are meant to be for its inhabitants first and the best way to provide them with the services they need is by keeping them involved throughout the process of building the solutions for themselves. Thereafter, citizen-focused investments, policies and growth of the city would automatically follow." The Fellows have worked with five government departments to create the following solutions:
While explaining the main features and impact of digital apps, the researchers said that applications have been developed to digitized record and automation of the Directorate of Industries and Commerce: Joint Stock Companies, Firms and Societies. They claimed that the product will minimize the time and the efforts to get a company, firm, society or a similar organization registered. Crowd funding platform for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB) which will help the startups and entrepreneurs from KP to raise investments to grow their startups into sustainable companies, the searchers said.
Similarly, the IT researchers said android based complaint and information application for Peshawar Traffic Police, was also designated. According to them, once this application is made available, the public would be able to register complaints against any kind of traffic violation as well as find out about the latest updates on the traffic situation in Peshawar.
Likewise, they said that another web based application has developed to improve the online experience of the Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP). This application is meant to showcase the natural beauty of KP so that not only locals can start exploring the wonderful sights but can also catch an eye of the international visitors, they added. The searchers said crowd sourced complaint system for Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) would help the public register complaints regarding any trash dump in the city. This application has already been launched (in beta) on 7th May, 2017 and handed over to the WSSP officials, they concluded.
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