The Hindu 18.11.2009

BBMP aims for better quality through e-governance

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahangara Palike (BBMP) is planning to take a majority of its activities online in a bid to improve the quality of service and reducing the cost incurred in rendering them.

Speaking to presspersons after a conference on implementation of e-governance, BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena and Administrator K.M. Shiva Kumar said that now tenders would be procured online to ensure greater transparency and ensure more competition amongst bidders.

Mr. Kumar said e-procurement was expected to save the BBMP close to Rs. 350 crore, and that this was “just a small portion of what would be saved perpetually”.

Project monitoring

The other major e-governance project was a web-based project monitoring system on which work progress at remote construction sites can be independently loaded by the contractor as well as the inspection agency stationed at the site. Of the 15,000 projects, information on 9,000 had been uploaded, and the remaining would be done in a week, Mr. Kumar said.

Also on similar lines were assessment of property through satellite imagery or the Geographic Information System, GPS for garbage disposal, “Spandana”, a public grievance system, an online system for monitoring court cases, an online khata system, a web-based birth and death registration system, integrated financial management and online bill payment among various others.

Troubleshooting

Online monitoring of projects enabled the top brass track the progress of projects. “Timely monitoring at a higher level can sort out most problems,” Mr. Kumar said. Moreover, satellite imaging would help track unassessed property, and the potential revenue from this would be close to Rs. 700 crore to Rs. 800 crore, doubling the BBMP’s income.

Mr. Meena said that people could register their complaints on “Spandana” telephonically, by filling the online registration form, by email or by texting.

A. Venkatesha, Deputy Director-General, National Informatics Centre, said the entire online setup was foolproof and there was no scope hacker attacks.

Mr. Venkatesha said that the system was equipped with technologies such as digital signature and 64-bit encryption, which made snooping impossible.

Mr. Meena said the BBMP would be training its staff in the newly introduced technology as well as public relations.

To register grievances online logon to http://spandana.kar.nic.in or call 9841844444 or 22660000.

The Hindu 17.11.2009

Decisions of PCMC bodies now posted online

Manish Umbrajkar, TNN 17 November 2009, 04:22am IST

PUNE: Citizens in Pimpri-Chinchwad can now access online the decisions taken by the standing commitee and the general body (GB) of the municipal corporation.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's (PCMC) facility will allow the public to easily access information about draft policies and development programmes to be implemented. The information is available on the civic body's website, pcmcindia.gov.in. Incidentally, the Pune Municipal Corporation began a similar practice a few months ago.

At the click of a button, PCMC residents can now see the agendas for the monthly GB meetings and the weekly standing committee meetings. Minutes of earlier meetings are also being posted online. The details will be provided in Marathi. Besides, the agendas of the law, women and child welfare, sports and the four zonal committees are being made available since the last two months.

In Pimpri-Chinchwad, the GB meetings are held around the 20th of every month, while the standing committee meets every Tuesday. The standing committee takes decisions on all policy issues, including financial matters.

Municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma said: "The move is aimed at bringing in transparency in the functioning of the municipal corporation. Providing information to citizens is part of the state-level commitment under the administrative reforms of the JNNURM.''

The PCMC has also begun providing information about the 44 main civic departments. The section titled Information' under RTI on the PCMC website has details of information officers, along with their office telephone numbers and email addresses. Another section provides information about the annual civic budget, as well as information related to the town planning department.

Welcoming the move, civic activist Vijay Kumbhar said the public would immensely benefit from the information. "Earlier, an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act had to be filed to obtain these details, which was time-consuming," he said. Kumbhar, however, stressed that the information should be regularly updated and that citizens too should make the best of this facility.

The PCMC, as part of its administrative reforms, had earlier introduced online facilities for payment of property and water tax, applying for building permissions, registration of complaints pertaining to civic services and submission of tenders. In addition, two innovative online services were also been rolled out one to inform the corporation about potholes, and another by which citizens can know whether garbage has been lifted from their neighbourhood bin that day.