The Local Government & Community Development (LG&CD) Department province Punjab has an over seeing role to ensure that the local governments perform their functions within the provincial framework and adhere to the federal and provincial laws.
Write: Dr. Shaukat Chauhdary
The Local Government & Community Development (LG&CD) Department province Punjab has an over seeing role to ensure that the local governments perform their functions within the provincial framework and adhere to the Federal and provincial laws.
LG&CD is working with the collaboration of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) aimed to assist and guide Local Governments in creating environment for autonomous, E-governance and responsible decision making through mobile android application Baldia Online. The Punjab government digitized 455 local bodies all over the province. The fast & efficient tracking of registration of birth, marriage, divorce and death is helpful in planning and executing development projects on higher management level.
LG& CD Department is making efforts to facilitate citizens of Punjab by making online services to provide, manage, operate, maintain and improve the municipal infrastructure services, Manage properties, Enforcement of municipal laws and regulations.
The local government and community development department of Punjab has developed a multi-feature mobile application named Baldia online with the collaboration of PITB to provide basic municipal services to serve people in an efficient manner. It has features to online register birth, death, marriage and divorce services & it also be used to receive complaints and suggestions to proactive the municipal matters and service delivery. Any citizen of the province can register birth, death, marriage and divorce from his or her smartphone.
This PITB Baldia online App making life easier especially for overseas Pakistanis who mostly face difficulties during registration of basic life matters. So far more than 263 Thousands people in all districts of Punjab have downloaded the app in few days the highest demand being for marriage and birth registration forms. PITB and team LGCD are establishing close liaison with NADRA which will increase its efficacy, utility and reliability according to the expectations of the citizens.
How to use this Baldia online application: All users have to create an account with Cell phone number & National identity card numbers and select the service they want to register. To proceed further select the division, district, and tehsil and name of local government they live in. Through the app, citizens are be able to report, births, Marriage, divorce and deaths & other Municipal issues from the comfort at home. This app will also facilitate people in scheduling their visit to the LG& CD department or field office of their respective local government.
Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said, “Obtaining certificates from local bodies was a headache and even a small job was done only by paying a bribe after many months. We have digitized the entire process and put several services of all 445 local governments online and you can submit your application through the Baldia Online App.
LG&CD envisages empowering citizens to an utmost possible extent through E-Governance because digitalisation of maximum affairs of Municipal service is PITB intimate goal.
The Punjab Local Government and Community Development Department Secretary Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi said: “We are working on digitising our affairs in an integrated manner so that public service delivery of modern kind be ensured in the province.
The competent authorities of PITB Chairman Azfar Manzoor, DG Sajid Latif and its qualified teams working on E-Governance across Punjab must be applauded for their endeavors to make online services more Convenient , friendly and apprehendable for the citizens and beneficial for the Punjab Government. Such a team is acting as a role model to start this landmark in other provinces as well in the future.
Punjab information Technology board (PITB) working on the vision of our honorable Prime Minister Imran Ahmed khan & CM Usman Buzdar along with Chief Secretary Jawed Rafique Malik, Secretary LG&CD Dr. Ahmad Javed Qazi, Special Secretary Babar Aman Babar towards era of digitalizing of numerous local Govt departments’ services (e-Governance), causing sigh of relief for the masses. It is the time for the Provincial government to move beyond checking deficits to the development projects especially accelerating work on the digitization of LG & CD.
