Baldiya Online
Mobile phones and computers have surpassed many other inventions of man in usefulness. Besides other things, mobile phones and smartphones have facilitated government administration to serve people in an efficient manner. The local government and community development department of Punjab has developed a multi-feature mobile application to provide basic municipal services to people. Named ‘Baldiya App’, it will facilitate registration of birth, death, marriage and divorce. Later, the app will also be used for receiving complaints and suggestions from people to improve municipal matters and service delivery. It is mandatory for all citizens to register the birth of children at the union council. Also, the registration of death, marriage and divorce is compulsory. Any inhabitant of the province can register birth, death, marriage and divorce from his or her smartphone.
The app will especially facilitate overseas Pakistanis who face difficulties in registration of such important matters. So far more than 150,000 people in all districts of Punjab province have downloaded the app, the highest demand being for marriage and birth registration forms. The fact that the demand for death registration forms is lower indicates that life expectancy in the province has increased. It goes to the credit of the progress made by medical science and the growing expertise of our own healthcare givers. Now the data pertaining to forms downloaded for municipal services at all levels of administration is being collected. The CM will soon formally inaugurate the app, and then a cell at the civil secretariat will monitor it and its data will be announced daily.
Punjab is the first province in the country to develop such an app. The Punjab government is also in the process of digitising 455 local bodies all over the province. The fast-tracking of registration of birth, marriage, divorce and death will be helpful in planning and executing development projects in a better way by doing away with the delays caused by red tape.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2020.
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