E-Governance

BBMP aims for better quality through e-governance

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 02:23 administrator

The Hindu 18.11.2009

BBMP aims for better quality through e-governance

Staff Reporter

Civic body wants to cut costs, boost revenue earning potential

Tenders to be procured online to ensure greater transparency People can register complaints on phone or by email

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.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 02:25

Decisions of PCMC bodies now posted online

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 10:46 administrator

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.

SMS to 56677 for booth location

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 04:42 administrator

Deccan Chronicle 17.11.2009

SMS to 56677 for booth location

November 17th, 2009

By Our Correspondent

Tags: GHMC elections, polling booths

Hyderabad
Nov. 16: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation launched a short messaging service on Monday to inform city voters of the polling booths in which they can cast their ballots.

This service has been launched to increase the voter turnout in the civic body polls scheduled for November 23.

According to the GHMC special commissioner, Mr S.P. Singh, this facility has been made available to the residents of Hyderabad in addition to the existing facilities like the Internet and call centres.

“It can be availed by typing GHMC EPIC (electors photo identity card) number and sending the message to 56677,” said Mr Singh. “The service is charged Re 1, which is the charge for a local SMS.”

In return the sender will get a message giving all details of the polling booth he or she has to go to cast the vote, he said.

he service can also be availed by those who don’t have an EPIC card. They have to type GHMC along with their house number and send it to 56677.

“We have collected a huge database of about 30 lakh mobile phone numbers in Hyderabad with the help of a private IT firm, who will be receiving details regarding the addresses of various polling booths,” said the special commissioner.

Now you can log on to Municipal Corporation website

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:18 administrator

The Hindu 17.11.2009

Now you can log on to Municipal Corporation website

Staff Reporter

It will be officially launched tomorrow

— Photo: S. Rambabu

Just a click away: Municipal Commissioner K. Manikraj explaining about the newly designed website of the Corporation in Rajahmundry on Monday.

Rajahmundry: The Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation (RMC) is all set to launch its official website on Wednesday.Commissioner K. Manikraj is giving the finishing touches to the site. The site -- www.rajahmundrycorporation.org -- is designed on the lines of the Guntur, Chennai and Hyderabad Corporations. It will be formally launched at the at the municipal council meeting.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Manikraj said that they have included 12 to 14 main departments in the website to enable citizens to know the status of works undertaken by the corporation. “This will ensure total transparency,”he added. To begin with, people can access public health, engineering and education wings. He expressed the hope that the site would become fully operational in 10-15 days.

The website is beautifully designed with two Godavari Bridges, AP Online access, Daily newspaper browsing, e-track, eSeva and other features. One can see photographs of different historic places in and around Rajahmundry, can know the historic importance of the city, online services like GOs with regard to tax payment, water billing, sanitation, etc. The e-tracking feature will enable the Sanitary Department head (municipal health officer) and the Commissioner to locate dumper vehicle movements and other information related to sanitary work.

“I am optimistic that hope within the next six months, the website will also compete with other Corporations like geocentric system through which one can get building plan approval on line,”said the Commissioner.

He said that the website would not only provide information but also reply to complaints made by the public through SMS. This unique feature is not available in other municipal websites.

The Commissioner also announced that a toll-free helpline -- 18002009111 -- would be opened on Wednesday.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 November 2009 00:19

MC website being upgraded

Monday, 16 November 2009 05:37 administrator

The Times of India 16.11.2009

MC website being upgraded

TNN 15 November 2009, 09:25pm IST

LUDHIANA: Owing to pressure exerted by state information commission (SIC) and Right to Information (RTI) activists, municipal corporation (MC) is on its toes to upgrade its website. Following the upgradation, exhaustive information pertaining to the civic body would be a click away.

The decision relating to the website’s upgradation had been on the cards ever since state information commissioner Lt Gen (retd) PK Grover had asked MC officers to comply with norms regarding proper dissemination of information under section 4(1)-B of RTI Act and include information in preview of the act on the website. For that, MC had even constituted a sub-committee comprising joint commissioner Mahinder Pal Gupta, senior deputy mayor Praveen Bansal and superintendent engineer (SE) designs DPS Wadhwa to look into the matter.

At a meeting of the committee held on Friday, it was decided that the website would be upgraded, with the main focus being on proper dissemination of information under clause 4(1)-B of the Act. At the meeting that continued for more than four hours, it was stated that the website would be divided into three parts- services, download and general information sections, which would be further divided into more than 20 sub-sections at the initial stage.

By accessing these sections, residents would be able to get information regarding services being given by the civic body, its income and expenditure, details of officers of each area and MC voter list. It was maintained that vital information regarding the budget and details of developmental work on in the city would be provided on the website.

Highly-placed sources revealed that it would take more than three months for the civic body authorities to complete the work on the website.

When contacted, Bansal said upgradation of the website would usher in a new era of information for city residents, adding that they were trying their best to complete the work soon as it would ensure transparency and accountability in working of the civic body.

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