E-Governance

Soon, register your civic complaints on phone

Saturday, 19 December 2009 10:30 administrator

Indian Express 19.12.2009

Soon, register your civic complaints on phone

Private players will be roped in to set up call centres

The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are planning to tie up with private players for setting up call centres which would register civic complaints. This was announced during a meeting of Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary, ULBs, Haryana, Rajkumar with councillors and officials of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA). Mahavir Singh, director, ULBs, was also present during the occasion.

“There is a proposal to tie up with a private company and set up call centres so that residents can get their complaints regarding civic issues registered there. Each call centre will cater to two to five sectors. The proposal has been sent to the Haryana government for approval,” said Rajkumar.

During the meeting, it was also decided that Panchkula will get a new sanitation system which would be the pilot project of the Local Bodies department, Haryana, done with public participation.

“Ward committees under the chairpersonship of ward councillors will be constituted for the purpose,” said Rajkumar.

“Under the present system, sweeping work in different localites is being taken care of contractors while garbage is collected by persons engaged by residents. After the current agreement with the contractor ends on December 31, the garbage collectors would be responsible to keep the area clean and dump the garbage at the proper place. They would be paid Rs 50 extra per month by the Municipal Council and will continue to charge from the residents accordingly,” he added. Later, the councillors put forth their suggestions and grievances.

Last Updated on Saturday, 19 December 2009 10:32

Mobile, online water bill payment a reality soon

Tuesday, 15 December 2009 05:39 administrator

Deccan Herald 15.12.2009

Mobile, online water bill payment a reality soon

Bangalore, Dec 14, DHNS:

With the BWSSB planning to accept mobile and online payments, water bills payment is set to become easier in the future. Chief Engineer (Cauvery), BWSSB, Vasudevan announced this on Monday, while presenting a paper on e-governance in BWSSB during the three-day `National Conference on Urban Water Management: Challenges and Options (NCUWM-09),’ which commenced here on Sunday.

Elaborating the proposed system to the media, BWSSB Chairperson P B Ramamurthy said that Indiranagar would become the first area to accept mobile payment. A pilot project will be launched here within a month and would later be extended to all areas under BWSSB.

On the cess the consumer will have to pay for the facility, the chairperson said that it would be a minimal amount, and not more than five rupees. Payments can also be made through internet but this facility would be operational only after six months.

The chairperson declined to comment on the possibility of a hike in water tarrif owing to hike in power tarrif. Extra cost that the Board would incur would work out to be 10.2% more than what was being paid to the electricity board now. Out of an annual revenue of Rs 480 crore, we are paying nearly Rs 240 crore towards power charges, the highest paid by any water supply body in the country.

Earlier, BWSSB Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, who inaugurated the conference, called for setting up of small water distillation units in all residences to purify water and also because they are inexpensive.

The City’s water requirement will be 2,550 Million Litres Per Day (MLD) by 2040. The present water supply including future plans to augment it will only permit the City to receive 1,500 MLD. Considering this, the department was now enforcing dual pipeline system, wherein one would be for portable and another for non-potable use, the minister said.

Twenty sewage treatments plants are being constructed all over the City, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore, to supply non-potable water, he added.
President of Bavarian Environment Agency in Germany Dr Ing Albert Gottle called for construction of reservoirs across rivers to regulate them.

An exhibition on water was also inaugurated. Dr A Ravindra, Advisor to the Chief Minister, BDA Commissioner Siddaiah and others took part.

To log out corruption, MCD to put in place new online payment system

Monday, 14 December 2009 10:38 administrator

Indian Express 14.12.2009

To log out corruption, MCD to put in place new online payment system

To address concerns about “deep-rooted corruption” in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), as revealed in the recent ‘ghost employees’ scandal that was costing the civic body Rs 17 crore every month, the MCD has decided to henceforth make all payments online.

The agency has now decided to strengthen its existing Electronic Clearance System and to introduce a new system called Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS).

Based guidelines set down by the Reserve Bank of India, the RTGS system will be extended primarily to all suppliers and contractors working on various MCD projects to do away with the ‘tender mafia’ in the civic body. Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra had also announced during the MCD budget presentation last week that the RTGS, once implemented, will also curb loss of time as the Corporation will be able to directly transfer money through e-banking within hours

The MCD has of late received numerous complaints from contractors and suppliers over failure to clear outstanding dues. The reason for the delay, say officials, is the time-consuming process of payment. “Currently, once a contracting agency completes work, the Corporation headquarters is informed. The headquarters then issues directions to the corresponding zonal office, which in turn directs the division office to issue cheques,” an official said. “This leads to inordinate delays in payments and the delay also creates further ground for corruption. The new system will eliminate this loss of time,” he said.

The RTGS system is the fastest possible money transfer system through the banking channel. Once implemented, it will help the MCD do away with the system of issuing cheques.

Henceforth, after the completion of a project, the due payment will be directly credited by the MCD’s appointed official bank to the eligible person’s account. The RTGS transactions are settled as soon as they are processed, and as the money transfer takes place in the books of the Reserve Bank of India, the payment is considered irrevocable.

According to MCD officials, besides eliminating any delays, the RTGS will also ensure that the contracting agencies deliver quality work.

“Because of the continued presence of the tender mafia and the accompanying nexus of suppliers and contractors, the quality of work suffers the most. There are innumerable examples in which work is executed only on paper, while the payment is made to the contractor. Once the new system is implemented, there will be no room for such corruption,” the official said.

The MCD will also extend its current biometric attendance system to all employees, including Education department employees and daily wage workers, by introducing mobile devices.

Last Updated on Monday, 14 December 2009 10:40

Civic body to make all payments online

Monday, 14 December 2009 10:30 administrator

Hindustan Times 14.12.2009

Civic body to make all payments online

To curb “corruption” in payments, and in order to avoid cons similar to the recent “ghost employees” scandal, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to make all payments online.

Under the new system — Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) — the amount due to the contractors will be credited in their accounts within 30 minutes of work being completed.

Based on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, the RTGS system will be extended mainly to all suppliers and contractors working on various MCD projects to do away with the innate presence of the “tender mafia” in the civic body.

According to the contractors, this new system will eliminate the complex process wherein the middlemen used to delay the process of payment.

The civic body has witnessed constant agitation by contractors and suppliers over its failure to clear their outstanding dues.

“We are happy that this system is being introduced. Earlier, we had to give one per cent of the total amount of the project to the cashier for releasing our cheques in a time-bound manner,” said said Satish Lamba, president of Contractor Welfare Association. He alleged that if one questioned this norm, there was an incessant delay in the payment.

“Naturally we had no alternative but to give that one per cent of the project cost to him,” he added .

Earlier for any payments that were made to the contractors there was a system where the amount to be released was sent from the MCD headquarters at Town Hall to the zonal department. The zonal department would then send the amount for clearance to the divisions, who would then issue cheques to the contractors.

Now, once a project is completed, the due payment will be directly cleared from MCD’s appointed official bank to the eligible person’s account.

“It is the quality of work that suffers the most in the MCD in the presence of the tender mafia and the accompanying nexus of suppliers and contractors. There are many examples in which works are executed only in file and the payment is made to the contractor. This system will end that,” said a senior MCD official.

Last Updated on Monday, 14 December 2009 10:35

BDA to be just a click away soon

Wednesday, 09 December 2009 07:56 administrator

The New Indian Express 09.12.2009

BDA to be just a click away soon

N R Madhusudhan

BANGALORE: Henceforth, one need not go to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) office to get information about their properties or other issues, as the BDA will answer most of the queries online.

The BDA is launching its new interactive website soon.

The BDA will also post various application forms related to the department on the website. One can download them and use them in their transactions with the department.

The process of filling the different forms and the samples of the filled forms would be posted on the site.

However, one has to pay the fee fixed for the form at the time of filing the forms.

According to an official, these measures will reduce the interference of middlemen and bring in transparency.

Details of all projects that are undertaken by the BDA, the status of the present projects and details of the proposed projects will also be posted on the website in addition to projects already executed.

The BDA computer department is procuring the relevant information from its different departments, and it might take some time to convert it into a digital form.

One of the officials said, “We have to verify all the data that we have and it is a tedious process.

We have set a target to complete all the work pertaining to the website by January 15 and we might launch the new website in another two months.” The BDA is also in the process of converting the records maintained in its different departments into digital form. The general public will also be able to obtain the details of their properties at the kiosk that will be set up at the entrance of the BDA main office.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 December 2009 08:07

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