Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in the country to introduce the WhatsApp governance platform called ‘Mana Mitra’ (our friend) offering 161 citizen-centric services, enabling people to procure documents real-time with the touch of a button on their smartphones.IT Minister Nara Lokesh, who formally launched the platform, told the media that with Mana Mitra, which is available at the phone number 9552300009, people can avail services pertaining to the Endowments, Energy, APSRTC, Revenue, Anna Canteens, CM Relief Fund (CMRF) and Municipal Departments in the first phase.
In the second phase, 360 services will be made available, Lokesh said. In total, he said, around 520 services will be offered through this platform in the future. Though the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) services are not part of Mana Mitra now, Lokesh promised that it would be included in the future.
Lokesh said, “We all believe it is a historical moment in governance initiatives. I believe that this is a true transformation that we are going to achieve. He said this idea started from his Yuvagalam padayatra after knowing the hardship of people to get govt services.”
He said nowadays at the press of a button, people are watching a movie, getting food delivered and cab coming to doorstep. So, the question arose why not the services of government should be available at the press of a button, Lokesh said.
Mana Mitra will offer seamless, efficient and citizen-centric public service delivery, adding that this initiative will catapult Andhra Pradesh again to the forefront of e-governance initiatives. “We will be seeing more and more such initiatives coming. Our entire objective is to keep the citizens as (the) center of our universe. What are all the touchpoints of the citizen and how do we resolve them,” he said.
The minister questioned why people should go to a government office or meet an MLA to obtain basic documents. Powered by Mana Mitra, common people are expected to save time and avoid the need to visit government offices multiple times for procuring documents.
Mana Mitra is the result of a complex process of integrating 36 government departments and promised to make it multilingual, along with voice commands in six months. When certificates are provided, there will be a special QR code on them. If you scan that QR code, the link will go to the AP government website. This will ensure perfect security, Lokesh said, adding that soon they will also bring blockchain technology.
Meta India Vice President and Head Sandhya Devanathan said, “It is a great pleasure to launch. “Mana Mitra” WhatsApp services. We will make Mana Mitra even better by working together with the AP government.”
WhatsApp Director and India Head Ravi Garg said, “We are working with many state governments across the country. However, there is no place where all types of services are provided on a single platform. We will further develop our Mitra WhatsApp.”
