The Indian Express             03.02.2014 

PMC civic services set to go online from April 1

If all goes as planned by the civic administration, residents of the city will soon be able to track their applications related to grievances and other files moved in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) online from April 1.

As part of its e-governance project, the PMC has decided to bring all the software used in various civic departments on one platform so that they can be linked. “Many civic departments are computerised, but the software are on different platforms, because of which they are not interconnected. The PMC is working on bringing all computerised systems on one software platform,” said Abhishek Krishna, Additional Municipal Commissioner.

The recently appointed agency has converted most of the software used by civic departments keeping in mind the plan to establish a single computerised platform. “There are certain difficult systems like the one used in birth and death registeration but the agency has been able to include it in the new system,” he said, adding that the agency would also design software for other civic services that are yet to be computerised.

“The focus would be on developing a file tracking system and grievance system for bringing transparency and increasing accountability. We want it to be launched on April 1,” said Krishna.

He added that a total of 16 administrative services would go online from the next financial year and the process of adding the remaining would continue.

The new e-governance plan includes computerisation of legal, urban community, central stores, disaster management, anti-encroachment and health by bringing the administrative process on the electronic system for day-to-day work.
As a mandatory reform for the civic bodies reaping the benefits of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the PMC had to implement the e-governance project to improve the delivery of its civic services.

The issuing of licences, certificates and permissions involves communication with citizens and the system required transparency and accountability, Krishna said, adding that the civic body aimed to make the system easily accessible to the public.

The computerised system for disaster management would involve linking the health, fire safety, anti-encroachment and building control departments to be interconnected for swift response to any disaster situation. Meanwhile, the civic body that has installed audio-visual system in the renovated general body meeting hall is now connecting the system with the television sets at the offices of each civic office-bearer and head of the department so that the proceedings can be watched and tracked by them sitting in their respective offices.

“As of now, heads of all civic departments have to attend the general body meeting to respond to queries and issues raised by elected representatives. They have to sit till the end of the meeting even if there is no issue of their respective department being raised. This keeps them unavailable for any other work, including public communication. The live telecast of the meeting on their TV sets in their office will help them rush to the meeting hall only if they are required,” said a civic officer.