BellaryOne BellaryOne launched

Source: The Hindu

Initially, the city will have two service centres



FOR CITIZENS:Thimmappa (right), Municipal Commissioner; G. Somashekar Reddy, MLA and KMF Chairman; G. Janardhan Reddy (extreme left),

BELLARY: Bellary became the ninth city in the State to have integrated citizen service centres with the launch of BellaryOne on Thursday.

To start with, Bellary will have two service centres — one at the City Corporation office complex and the other at the Bellary Urban Development Authority office complex — where people could remit bills pertaining to electricity, telephone and cellphones of certain service providers, water bills and property taxes and buy passport applications. These centres would function between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. throughout the year.

The services are being provided by the Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services, e-Governance Department on a public-private partnership model.

Speaking after inaugurating the centre, G. Janardhan Reddy, Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure Development, called upon the people to make use of the facilities and services provided.

“Depending upon the need, more such centres will be opened with round-the-clock services,” he said and instructed the Municipal Commissioner to organise public meetings about the services being made available to the public.

M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, e-Governance, said that the services were launched for the first time in 2005 in Bangalore and after five years, there were 70 centres in different localities working round-the-clock.

Hubli-Dharwad, Shimoga, Mysore, Mangalore, Tumkur, Davangere and Gulbarga are the other cities where this facility was available.

“From today, people can remit bills pertaining to electricity, telephone bills of BSNL, Airtel and Vodafone, and buy passport applications. In two days, services for remitting water bills and property taxes will be added. By August 31, we want to provide at least 10 services at these Bellary One centres,” Mr. Vidyashankar said.

G. Somashekar Reddy, MLA and Chairman, Karnataka Milk Federation, who presided over the function, said that the development of the city was going on and simultaneously special services such as Bellary One was being provided. He wanted the people to take advantage of it.

N. Thippanna, MLC, T.H. Suresh Babu, MLA, B. Shivappa, Deputy Commissioner, and M.N. Nagaraj, Superintendent of Police, were present.

Thimmappa, Municipal Commissioner, welcomed the gathering. D.S. Ravindran, CEO, e-Governance, proposed a vote of thanks.