Minister for IT Electronics and Communication N. Lokesh addressing media after launching the WhatsApp Governance “Mana Mitra” at his residence at Undavalli in Guntur district on Thursday.
For the first time in the country, the Andhra Pradesh government has launched WhatsApp Governance titled ‘Mana Mitra’. The services were formally launched by Minister for IT Electronics & Communication and Real Time Governance (RTG) Nara Lokesh at his residence in Undavalli, Amaravati, on Thursday. The State government has allotted an official WhatsApp number 9552300009 for availing the services.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Lokesh said, “I have done a 3,132-km padayatra called the Yuva Galam. This idea started from the padayatra. These days at the press of a button, we are watching a movie, food is delivered, a cab is coming. The question arose as to why the government does not come to the people. I thought that day that I should accept the challenge. That is why WhatsApp Governance is being launched with the slogan ‘Mana Mitra’ government and in the hands of the people, and ours is the people’s government”.
Mr. Lokesh said that in the first phase, the government was introducing 161 public services through Mana Mitra – Governance and in the second phase another 360 services would be enabled. He said that they had been planning to provide all the government services through this WhatsApp based “Mana Mitra” and if necessary, the government would enable new legislation.
The Minister said that on October 22 last year, an agreement was signed with Meta in Delhi. And now, the government was launching the services in three months and 9 days after the MoU.
Citizen Services in First Phase
Mr. Lokesh said that 36 departments would have to be connected to WhatsApp Governance. This was a a very complicated task. In the first phase, the government was making 161 civic services available. In the second phase, it would start 360 more services. WhatsApp Governance was the bridge between the government and the people.
The government would take the responsibility of providing certificates in real time. When certificates are provided, there will be a special QR code on them. If one scans that QR code, the link would go to the AP government website. It eliminates the prospect of fake certificates.
“We have also decided to bring blockchain technology soon. Now, we have brought many services along with revenue, municipal, and endowment services. In the second phase, we will also implement it through AI bot and voice. We are the first State in the world to implement WhatsApp governance. There is a need to improve this further. There is still a lot to learn. We will correct the shortcomings and make it even better. We are also taking information from all departments in real-time governance and codifying it, to provide seamless services. We will make it an ideal product in six months. We will make all the services available,” Mr. Lokesh said.
Meta India vice president and head Sandhya Devanathan said, “We have created WhatsApp governance to make it easy for people to use. We will make Mana Mitra even better together with the Andhra Pradesh government.”
WhatsApp Director and India Head Ravi Garg said that they were working with many State governments across the country. However, there was no place where all types of services were provided on a single platform. “We will further develop Mana Mitra WhatsApp Governance and make more services available.” Mr. Garg said that people could easily access the civic services by typing “Hi”.
Bhaskar Katamaneni, Secretary, IT, Electronics and Communication Department, RTGS CEO K. Dinesh and others participated in this programme.
Published – January 30, 2025 08:38 pm IST
