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E-Governance

Civic body to upgrade e-governance system

Monday, 02 November 2009 07:16 administrator
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The Hindu 02.11.2009

Civic body to upgrade e-governance system

Staff Reporter

‘It will provide a single-window service to all citizens’

 

‘Civic body is also in the process of digitising its land and property records’

‘Aim to bring about more speed and overall improvement in our services’

NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has decided to upgrade its existing e-governance system supporting the civic agency’s website that was launched in 2003.

To assist in the up-gradation, the civic body has zeroed in on a private firm. Once the plan is approved by the MCD Standing Committee, the company will provide the design, development implementation and operational support for the e-governance project. The IT firm will also help the civic body integrate its existing application with the new, more developed system.

After implementation of the project, the system will ensure that services like booking of parks and community halls, mother and child welfare information, vigilance information and registration of birth and death are all uploaded online effectively.

An MCD official said: “It will provide a single-window service to all citizens besides developing an integrated view of the civic body’s information service. It will further lead to increased efficiency, effective planning and performance monitoring. We had introduced filing of property tax online quite some time ago but now other services will also be made online to bring about more transparency, speed and overall improvement in our services.”

In addition, the civic body is also in the process of digitising its land and property records. “At presently these files take up a lot of space at the MCD headquarters in Town Hall. A number of times they get destroyed by pests and rains.

By digitising the records we will be able to save space and make it easier to access records wherever it is required,” the official added.

Last Updated on Monday, 02 November 2009 07:18
 

Margao civic body's website to be launched on Gandhi Jayanti

Thursday, 01 October 2009 06:02 administrator
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The Times of India 01.10.2009

Margao civic body's website to be launched on Gandhi Jayanti

TNN 1 October 2009, 05:42am IST

MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) will soon have its place in cyberspace. Come October 2 and the MMC will launch its own website packed with a host of features designed to enable the public to have e-access to the civic administration.

The website will be commissioned by chief minister Digambar Kamat at a function to be held on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti.

"This is the first step towards the revival of the citizens' facilitation centre. By launching this website we wish to bring the administration of the Margao civic body a step closer to the public," MMC chairperson Savio Coutinho told TOI.

The MMC website is devoid of any frills. Neither does it boast of a dynamic design, nor is it packed with fancy animation. However, its people-friendly features hold promise of a transparent civic administration.

For starters, the website will provide records of births and deaths, trade tax and house tax, besides posting tender notices and public announcements.

Various application forms that need to be filled in by the public to obtain documents or services from the MMC will also be available on the website. These can be downloaded and printed.

Chief officer of the MMC Prasanna Acharya said that the website, though modest in design and features, is a step towards making the administration "responsive and transparent."

"The website will be loaded with additional features gradually. We are also looking at having a `you owe us' section where people will be able to know their dues to the MMC at the click of the button, besides enabling them to pay their outstanding amounts online.

"These things may take some time to materialize but they are very much in the pipeline," Acharya told TOI.

The website has been designed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in coordination with the tech-savvy staff of the MMC.
 

'60% BMC men don't even access official e-mails'

Wednesday, 30 September 2009 07:09 administrator
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The Times of India 30.09.2009

'60% BMC men don't even access official e-mails'

Viju B, TNN 30 September 2009, 02:37am IST
MUMBAI: Two years ago, the BMC became one of the first civic bodies in the country to provide internet connectivity to all its ward offices. With it came the hope for citizens of being able to reach officials online with their complaints on a host of civic issues. But a look at BMC employees' internet usage patterns over just 20 days has revealed that only around 40% actually used their official e-mail ids.

Officials from Class III level onwards have been given e-mail ids. Data provided by the BMC's IT cell shows while 2,897 official ids were created by the department, on an average only 1,172 e-mails were sent daily. The ids were created by the department to enable citizens to lodge online complaints at the ward offices and different departments in the civic corporation,

Data also reveals that on an average 312 e-mails bounced from these ids and 479 e-mails were rejected every day. "This shows BMC officers are not comfortable using the internet. Though the BMC's IT department has provided the ward offices with good infrastructure, there is not much awareness or inclination to use the computer facilities available," said RTI activist Milind Mulay, who had filed a query on this issue.

However, senior BMC officials said use of official e-mail ids cannot be considered a yardstick for the department's internet usage. "It is a known fact that most officers use personal e-mail ids. The BMC has one of the most customer-friendly IT systems. Today citizens can renew even Shop and Establishment Licence contracts online,'' said Vijay Balamwar, director of the BMC's IT department. But he added that the department will now request all employees to use official ids.

BMC officials also admitted that the civic corporation has done little to promote the use of online facilities among its employees or even citizens. "The civic diary does not mention the official id of any of the complaint officers at the ward level. How are citizens suppose to know the personal ids of officials?" Mulay said.

Activists also said that most BMC officials refused to take online RTI queries though this is permissible under the Act. "The public information officer of G-north sent me a letter stating that there is no provision to send the information by e-mail. I checked with complaint officers of other wards and they said they do not have access to the e-mail facility," Mulay said.

A senior BMC official admitted that only one 1% of the public information officers have been provided with official e-mail ids. "That is, in fact, the case in all government departments. At least in the BMC, we are trying to improve the situation,'' the official said.
 

E-payment of VAT introduced in Punjab

Wednesday, 30 September 2009 05:02 administrator
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The Hindu 30.09.2009

E-payment of VAT introduced in Punjab

To facilitate and make the collection more efficient

Jalandhar: With an aim to facilitate and make the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) more efficient, the state government on Tuesday launched electronic payment of VAT in the entire state.

Inaugurating the E-payment system here, Punjab Excise and Taxation Commissioner A Venu Prasad said e-payment of VAT was first introduced in Ludhiana as a pilot project by the department in May 2009 and the same was being extended to the entire state.

The system would reduce traders’ problems in payment of tax and would also help in speeding up tax collections, he said, adding that at present the e-payment facility could be used by the dealers only through the State Bank of India (SBI) and later on the facility would be extended through other banks as well.

It is targeted that by March 2011, all VAT payers would be able to pay the tax electronically.

Mr. Prasad revealed that in the current fiscal the expected VAT collection was about Rs.8,000 crore compared to Rs.7,000 crore collected in the previous financial year.

Traders

With the introduction of e-payment, the money would flow from traders to the government without any time gap and reconciliation of the accounts would be done without any difficulty, he claimed.- PTI

Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 September 2009 05:04
 

IKM project wins CSI e-governance award

Wednesday, 23 September 2009 04:34 administrator
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The Hindu 23.09.2009

IKM project wins CSI e-governance award

 

Special Correspondent

The project was implemented in all panchayats, municipalities and corporations in 2008.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ‘Sulekha’ annual Plan formulation and monitoring system for decentralised planning, developed and executed by the State-run Information Kerala Mission (IKM), has won the Computer Society of India (CSI)-Nihilent e-governance award for excellence in the government to government (G2G) project category 2008-09.

The project has been developed by the IKM, in association with the Nihilent Technologies and the National Institute for Smart Government. It was implemented in all panchayats, municipalities and corporations in 2008. It is currently being used to capture the details of over 1.5 lakh project reports created by 1,223 local self-government institutions annually under decentralised planning.

The data is used to generate reports for appraisal of the projects by the 169 Technical Advisory Groups and then for approval by the 14 District Planning Committees (DPCs). The project-wise monthly expenditure details are also captured in the software and transmitted to the State Data Centre over the network and made available publicly on the web site of the Local Self-government Department, http://www.lsg.kerala.gov.in

Over the past one decade, the IKM has been striving to develop software that could help streamline the Plan formulation and monitoring system in the local governments. The project was started in the context of democratic decentralisation implemented in the State from the 9th Five Year Plan (1997-2002). The CSI had short-listed the ‘Sulekha’ project in the G2G category from a large number of projects nominated from all over the country. A team from the CSI had visited the IKM to get a first-hand experience of the project and the software.

The team had also visited Karakulam grama panchayat and the District Planning Office here and interacted with the users about the performance of the software and the project achievements. Subsequently, a presentation of the project was done by the IKM before the award jury at Hyderabad.

The awards for 2008-09 will be given away at Pune on October 9.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 23 September 2009 04:36
 
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