PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has launched an online system in all the four town municipal administrations of Peshawar.

A statement issued here said that the system had been put in place under a project of the provincial information technology department, costing Rs47 million. The system was formally launched in a function attended by provincial minister for information technology Shahram Tarakai and senior minister for local government Inayatullah Khan.

Briefing participants of the ceremony about various aspects of the initiative, officials of the IT and LG departments said that the project was meant to integrate overall activities of the local councils at the four town offices. They said that the initiative included networking inside the department and connection with the field offices for file tracking and resource sharing, tendering, bidding, auction, accounts, financial management, budgeting, HR management, attendance of employees complaint redressal and litigation.

They said that all municipal services had been computerised with the aim to ensure transparency, efficiency and better citizen services delivery.

Addressing the ceremony, the provincial ministers termed the initiative a revolutionary step of the provincial government and said that the project would ensure transparency in the affairs of municipalities and efficient service delivery.

They said that this automated/online system would also help a great deal to collect real time data about municipal services and thus result in better policy decision making for public wellbeing. The ministers directed the high-ups of both the departments to include an effective public complaint redressal mechanism in the newly-launched system.

The project will facilitate faster exchange of information between various sections of the Local Government and Local Council Board for reducing the amount of paperwork which will result in efficiency and better data management. Through this online system the citizens will also have a more convenient platform for interacting with the government.