Friends; Public Service in Kerala
FRIENDS' (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Effective Network
for Disbursement of Services) is a single window 'no queue'
integrated remittance centre where the citizens have t
he opportunity to pay all taxes and other dues to the
Government under one roof at no extra cost. Offering a
comfortable ambience, each 'FRIENDS'centre accept payments
of the Kerala University, Local body, Electricity Board,
Water Authority, Land Revenue, Civil Supplies, Motor Vehicles,
BSNL and Electrical Inspectorate. The computerized counters
manned by customer friendly officials, work from 9.00
am to 7.00 pm, including all Sundays.
Each of the counter follows a 'token management' system
which eliminate s the need for queues and inordinate
delays in making remittances. These Janaseva kendras
are currently operational in all the district headquarters
of the state. At each kendra, there is a special Help-Desk
to guide the public who are not well conversant with
the payment procedures. Facilities also exist to record
suggestions/complaints, which are reviewed on a regular
basis. An average of 700-1000 people visit each center
every day. The increasing popularity of this programme
can be gauged by the fact that the collection during
2003-2004 has increased by more than 75% vis a vis the
collection in the previous year.
ISO for FRIENDS:
Considering the vide acceptance of the project, Government
decided to go for ISO certification for the project.
A consultant has been appointed for this purpose. Following
areas have been identified for improvement:
- To reduce delays in transfer of credits to less
than 1% in a period of 6 months
- To introduce a scheme of touch screen printing of
application forms of govt. agencies.
- To reduce total waiting time+service time to less
than 3 minutes during normal time and to less than
10 minutes during peak time
- To publish pamphlets giving information on systems
and procedures to be followed in making remittances
- To facilitate payment of non-domestic bills
- To add at least three new agencies during the financial
year so that more customers are served
- To increase the number of customers visiting the
centre
- To meet 50% of operating expenses of FRIENDS centres
through collection of service charges from BSNL and
other sources
- To reduce customer complaints to less than 5% at
the end of the financial year
- To improve back-end operations in the departments
so that inconvenience to customers in terms of disconnection
etc. are reduced.
New Services:
Railway reservation facilities are available in two
centres viz. Wayanad and Malappuram and it will be extended
to the Pathanamthitta centre as well. Back-end integration
process with Trivandrum MVD office has been completed.
Following new services are proposed to be added to the
project:
- Collections relating to LIC
- Air India reservation re-confirmation system
- Introduction of Touch Screen facilities for dissemination
of information to the public in all the 14 centres.
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