Gaurishankar Rural Municipality in Dolakha has a mobile app to provide information about services and gather feedback from service seekers, but hardly anyone uses it.

The app, which was commissioned by the federal government, was launched a year ago, and its user numbers have hardly crossed 100, according to Prabhas Joshi, an information technology officer at the rural municipality.
Gaurishankar Rural Municipality has a population of around 26,000.
“The app users mostly consist of the municipal staff, school teachers and health workers,” said Joshi.

Common people to whom the app was targetted are not using it because most of them don't have internet access.
A cell phone tower of Nepal Telecom was installed in the rural municipality only two months ago while Ncell, another mobile service provider, has yet to expand its coverage in the region.

“The rural municipality had prioritised expanding the use of the mobile app after phone service reached the area. We even allocated funds to promote the use of mobile and internet services, but to no avail,” said Joshi.

GaurishankarRural Municipality is not the only local unit which is experiencing limited use of the government mobile app.

Pheta Rural Municipality in Bara also has a limited number of app users.

Shyam Kishor Sah, an information technology officer at the rural municipality, attributes this to illiteracy.

“Very few people have downloaded the app,” he said.

Efforts made by Dhangadhi Municipality in Kailali to encourage people to use the app have also largely failed.

“Many people don’t know about the mobile app. The internet access is not available throughout Dhangadhi Municipality,” said Kamalraj Ojha, an engineer at the municipality.

While the municipality’s app developed by the federal government is being used to disseminate information about the municipality, it has developed another app for providing information on infrastructure projects.

The municipality’s app called ‘Infrastructure Management Service’ aims to provide information about the number of projects in various wards, the contractors and the budget allocated for them, among others.

Suyas Chanda, an IT officer at the municipality, said Dhangadhi Municipality has been encouraging people to use the app.

“The number of users is growing but it has not reached the desired level despite our efforts,” said Chanda.

The federal government’s own assessment also shows the use of such apps has been disappointing.

“Our general assessment is the app use has not been very promising,” said Nagesh Badu, an e-governance specialist at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. “There is also the realisation that the app should be improved. We have sought feedback from local governments on improving the app.”

According to the Federal Affairs Ministry, 423 local governments out of 753 have launched the mobile app developed by the federal government.