Patna, April 3: State rural development minister Nitish Mishra is using information technology (IT) to keep track of the applications he receives.

He is also informing the applicants about the status of their applications through text messages on their cellphones.

Mishra has started a dedicated website http://esanchika.com for this purpose through which he is keeping a tab on the applications received on his cellphone.

Mishra told The Telegraph: “I used to feel lost when applicants inquired about the status of their application. I had to go through several files to find out the details. Now with the new system in place the number of queries have reduced drastically as applicants get text alerts about their application on their cellphones.”

The system works in a very simple way. As soon as an application is received on the minister’s cellphone it is sent to the officer concerned with a note from him.

After this, the details are keyed in the website and a text message is automatically generated by the website, which informs the applicant that a particular officer has been assigned the job.

In the second stage, the officer concerned sends his or her report to the minister on his cellphone, which is again uploaded on the website and the detail about the action taken is sent through text messages to the applicant.

The website has a system in place, which allows the minister to keep tab on applications in which officials fail to take action.

Mishra said: “In such cases an alert is shown on the website, which makes things easier for me to keep tab on applications on which no action has been taken.”

He said: “The web-based system is proving to be very handy as it was allowing him to keep track on the work being done even when he is on the move or out of Patna.”

He said: “I just check the website to find out the details.”

Though Mishra got this system introduced in his cellphone in January this year, he did not share it with anyone as he wanted to test the efficiency of the system before sharing its details with others.

He said: “The system appears to have worked well and around 300 to 400 applications have been handled each month since the system was introduced. I feel good when applicants inform me that they received text messages informing them about the action taken on their applications.”

Mishra recently got a call from his cabinet colleague Shyam Rajak who too had sent one application related to the rural development department.

Rajak thanked Mishra for the text alert sent to him.

Rajak said: “It was a pleasant surprise as I was not aware about the system, which Mishra has put in place on his cellphone.”

Rajak, in fact, is thinking to have something similar in place on his cellphone too.

Rajak added: “It will not only reduce the load of sending letters to applicants informing them about the action taken on their applications — the system would allow me to keep tab on the progress made on applications received on my cellphone.”