BENGALURU: Ahead of assembly elections in 2018, the Congress government in Karnataka has been going all out to bring about transparency and accountability in its governance using modern technology.

On Tuesday, chief minister Siddaramaiah launched Pratibimba (reflection) — a web-based platform to showcase the government's performance and achievements to the citizens and a dashboard which will serve as a tool to improve efficiency in governance and allow citizens to track government's progress. It can be accessed at https://pratibimba.karnataka.gov.in

After formally inaugurating the new platform, Siddaramaiah said Pratibimba is a reflection of the growth story and development of the state under the Congress. "We are accountable to people of Karnataka as it is they who have voted us to form the government, and this is one of the ways of showing our accountability and transparency," he added

Siddaramaiah’s dashboard follows the footsteps of his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu ’s CORE (chief minister’s office real time) which also includes additional features like tax collection data, number of street lights, energy consumption, housing and ease of doing business index data among others. Karnataka is the second state in the country to have such a dashboard.

The chief minister’s attempt to connect with the citizens comes amid criticism of non-performance, delays in file clearances and corruption allegations against the Congress government in the state which goes to polls in May next year. The state government had also recently scrapped the Rs 2100-crore steel flyover project in Bengaluru, which came under sharp criticism from various citizens forums and opposition parties, following allegations of alleged payoffs.

Siddaramaiah however defended the government’s belated decision saying, "The dashboard was supposed to be launched much earlier, but got delayed for different reasons,’’ .

He said that the government under his leadership has fulfilled at least 125 of the 165 assurances made in its manifesto. The website will have all such information and it will be updated on a monthly basis.

He said 'Pratibimba' will be improvised in the coming years by including many other aspects like evaluation of district level performance, integration of many solutions on a single dashboard platform and feedback mechanism for citizens.

