Harsh Vardhan launches 'COVID India Seva' to address citizens' queries

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday launched 'COVID India Seva', an interactive platform for citizen engagement on coronavirus.

This initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly, at scale, especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"Experts will share authoritative public health information regarding COVID-19 swiftly at scale, helping to build a direct channel for communication with citizens," Harsh Vardhan said in a tweet.

"Through this, people can pose queries @CovidIndiaSeva and get them responded to in almost real-time. @CovidIndiaSeva works off a dashboard at the backend that helps process large volumes of tweets, converts them into resolvable tickets, and assigns them to the relevant authority for real-time resolution," read an official statement.

Commenting on the announcement of the Seva, the statement quoted Vardhan as saying, "Over time, Twitter has proved to be an essential service for both the government and citizens to interact and exchange information, especially in times of need."

Union Health Minister said as India fights coronavirus with social distancing, "we are happy to make a concerted online effort by adopting the Twitter Seva solution. It is powered by a team of experts at our end who are trained and equipped to treat and respond to each query uniquely, and at scale."

"This will enable us to establish a direct channel with Indian citizens, connecting with them in real-time to provide authoritative health and public information," he added.

The statement stated as these responses are transparent and public, everyone can benefit from the responses received around common queries. It is important to note that the Ministry will respond to broader queries and public health information. This does not require the public to share personal contact details or health record details.

(ANI)

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