The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Professor Prem Kumar Dhumal, formally launched four mobile phone based services for the Copying Agency, Public Grievance Redressal system (eSamadhan), Arms License Issuance System (eShastr) and Election Communication Plan MIS. This has started the process of moving towards mGovernance in the State. A number of senior officers of the State Government were present during the launch ceremony. The SMS Gateway interface has been provided by the Department of IT, HP. The Principal Secretary (IT) HP Government gave a presentation on the usage of SMS Gateway and the SIO NIC Himachal Pradesh demonstrated the eShastr and eSamadhan services using SMS gateway. The CEO Himachal explained the usage of SMS gateway during the recently held by-elections. All the applications have been developed for the convenience of the citizens so that they don’t have to visit the Government offices again and again. In eShastr, once the Arms license is printed, the citizens get information on their mobile phone through SMS to come and collect the copy or license by paying the specified balance amount. During the launch ceremony, one applicant was sent an SMS and the Chief Minister presented him his Arm License. In eSamadhan, the entire process has been linked to SMS gateway and the citizens keep getting SMS after lodging their complaint and every time the Government office takes some action on the grievance. The Principal Secretary (Chief Minister, Public Grievance Redressal) was also present. The immediate response by the SW application on the applicant’s mobile through SMS instills a confidence that the Government is serious about redressal of his/her complaint. Every time, a Government action is initiated on the complaint, the applicant automatically receives another SMS, showing the level and brief response. This enables the citizen to monitor the status of complaint without using Internet. In Elections Department, the SMS based Poll Communication Plan SW was implemented for the by-election to two Assembly Segments in November 2009 and data was used by the CEO Himachal. The citizen interface kept the public updated on the poll figures every two hours. All data from approximately 215 polling booths was collected only through SMS. Also, the Electors can SMS their EPIC number to the specified number and get information about their part number, serial number and address of the polling booth. All the applications SW are NIC developed and the SMS gateway interface has also been incorporated by the NIC Himachal Pradesh State Centre.