Srinagar, 29 September (H.S.): In a significant step towards making public service delivery more accessible, convenient and citizen-friendly, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo today chaired a high-level meeting of all the concerned Administrative Secretaries to review the preparedness of the IT Department for the early rollout of an AI-powered conversational messaging platform that will enable citizens across Jammu and Kashmir to access government services directly through WhatsApp.

The meeting besides the Commissioner Secretary, IT was attended by other Administrative Heads, Deputy Commissioners; senior officers and a team from NeGD, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), NIC and senior officers from IT Department.

The initiative envisages onboarding 100 high-footfall government services in the first phase, allowing citizens to apply for essential services, track applications, submit documents, make payments and receive official communications through WhatsApp without the need to download separate applications or navigate multiple government portals.

During the meeting, the Chief Secretary reviewed the implementation roadmap for the proposed Multi-Channel Conversational Messaging API Solution, which will leverage Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to provide an integrated, multilingual and interactive interface for accessing government services.

Emphasising the importance of simplifying government-citizen interactions, the Chief Secretary observed that the initiative should substantially reduce procedural complexities, minimise physical visits to government offices and make essential public services accessible to citizens from the comfort of their homes.

He stressed that the platform should particularly benefit people living in rural and remote areas by providing a familiar, user-friendly interface capable of functioning even on low-bandwidth internet connections.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar