Kerala’s flagship local-body e-governance platform, K-SMART, will see its technical glitches addressed as the remaining modules are completed and regular updates are rolled out, Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) Minister K A Shaji told the state Assembly on Monday.
Replying during Question Hour, the Minister acknowledged complaints about delays, slow response times and update-related problems on the portal, which local self-government institutions across the state use to deliver services to citizens. He said K-SMART had been built by integrating the software systems already in use at local bodies and had proved useful, but admitted the rollout is far from complete: of the 21 modules the platform was launched with, only 10 have been completed so far.
The remaining modules, he said, will be completed and updates carried out on a regular basis to resolve the issues affecting the system.
What K-SMART is meant to do
K-SMART (Kerala Solutions for Managing Administrative Reformation and Transformation) is developed by the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) as a single, data-centric platform for panchayats and municipalities. It is envisaged to combine ERP, process re-engineering and citizen relationship management, covering services such as civil registration, property tax, building permission, trade licences, file management and grievance redressal through a web portal and mobile app with single sign-on. The platform is built on UPYOG, the urban governance platform under the National Urban Digital Mission.
Unauthorised buildings and lost revenue
The Assembly question also flagged revenue losses to the government and local bodies from unauthorised buildings that remain outside the tax net. Shaji said the government is considering geo-tagging buildings to streamline the allotment of building numbers and tackle unauthorised construction.
He noted that many town buildings carry floors beyond permitted limits, with gyms, tuition centres and other commercial establishments operating in them, and that several such structures and some houses have been left out of the numbering system altogether, costing panchayats and municipalities potential revenue.
A committee headed by the Special Secretary, with the Chief Town Planner and other officials as members, has been asked to examine the possibility of regularising such buildings and submit its report within a month. Once the report is in, the Minister said, both the regularisation questions and the related software issues on K-SMART will be addressed.
Why it matters
K-SMART is among India’s most ambitious attempts to put an entire tier of local government on one integrated digital stack. The Minister’s admission that fewer than half the modules are live highlights a familiar e-governance challenge: platforms launched at scale before they are feature-complete can frustrate both citizens and frontline staff. How quickly IKM closes the module gap, and whether geo-tagging is tied into building permission and property tax workflows, will shape whether the platform delivers on its promise of faster, paperless local services.