E-Governance

AMC school board goes tech-savvy, e-mails set to replace postal mails

Wednesday, 27 November 2013 08:29 administrator

The Indian Express 27.11.2013

AMC school board goes tech-savvy, e-mails set to replace postal mails

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation School board opened email accounts for 456 of its school heads on Monday even as the Internet facility is yet to reach these schools. According to the authorities, the e-mail scheme has been launched for real-time communication in place of postal mails or sending and receiving information by hand. Apart from routine matters, circulars and policy documents will also be communicated through e-mails. "In recent years, we have witnessed a lot of communication gap as relevant information could not reach schools or vice versa on time. With this service, all school heads and teachers will have instant information released from the school board," said AMC school board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

However, it remains to be seen how many takers will the proposal have as few school heads are Internet-savvy and can access e-mails. "Leave alone heads, I am not sure how many students in our school know how to use Internet as we hardly have this facility in our school. The students in municipal schools are from economically weaker sections who hardly have computers or Internet at home," revealed a school head at the municipal school in Vadaj.

With an aim to make its staff, teachers and students computer-savvy, AMC school board had launched its official website last year. Though the website's pages are still being developed, it started by uploading important announcements by the board and Education Department.

With the introduction of Computer Science as a subject since previous academic session, it was proposed to connect all schools to Internet. "Shala Telephone Internet Vayudoot Suvidha" was launched to provide Internet to all municipal schools. The project was aimed at keeping students abreast with Internet and technology updates. The move is being seen as an attempt to compete with private schools. However, there are questions being raised on the validity of the move as several municipal schools lack even the basic infrastructure.

Face recognition device to mark attendance of Thane Municipal Corporation staff

Monday, 25 November 2013 11:51 administrator

The Times of India 25.11.2013

Face recognition device to mark attendance of Thane Municipal Corporation staff

THANE: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is planning a face recognition device as part of the biometric attendance system to ensure better accountability of civic officials.

If sources are to be believed, then the TMC will be the first civic body to install this kind of technology in its day-to-day functioning.

The decision comes on the backdrop of various complaints of manipulation in the thumb biometric machine among civic officials of various rankings.

The installation will take place in two phases. The civic body has invited bids for the same and the system may be installed in December, said a TMC source.

The budget for this face recognition attendance system is pegged at around Rs 10 lakh. -Nishikant Karlikar

The face recognition biometric attendance systems will keep track of the entry and exit time of every employee, and will help to mitigate false attendance or tampering the thumb machines.

In the first phase, 17 units will be installed at the TMC headquarters in Panchpakhadi and the nine ward offices. If it is successful, other civic buildings will also install the machines.

The new system aims at registering the attendance of TMC employees with face recognition devices. This is expected to improve delivery of various services to offices having public interface. A TMC source said, "Presently, the TMC thumb biometric machines installed in various departments of TMC to register the daily attendance however, it has come to our notice that the present system of thumb impression has been tampered by some of the employees and has been misused hence, the decision of installing the face recognition devices had been taken up."

The TMC has also invited bids who will help them to install the system that will capture the images of the employees along with the other related software that will unable to bring in transparency in the working of TMC. The TMC is technical specification which shall have face recognition based attendance machines with Sim connectivity in addition to the attendance mgmt. software with installation, configuration & support.

Once the system is installed, any staff member who comes in front of the machine the device collects and consolidates data and recognises the retina of eye and face structure and marks the attendance.

The source added that the device will be sim based and will be complete wireless connectivity this will unable the civic staff to carry it anywhere in their building and there will be cent percent accuracy.

Also, there shall be three years comprehensive warranty on the technology which will be with the service provider. The budget of the implementation shall be roughly around Rs 10 lakh and could possibly be installed in the month of December.

Video monitoring for municipal polls

Friday, 22 November 2013 10:31 administrator

The Times of India 22.11.2013

Video monitoring for municipal polls

KOLKATA/ HOWRAH/ WEST MIDNAPORE: The death of two persons in Howrah while making bombs on Thursday is an indication that the municipal election there on Friday will keep the police on their toes. Not only HMC, administration is taking no chance for other four municipalities — Jhargram, Midnapore, Krishnagar and Behrampore — that are going to polls on the same day.

"There will be video monitoring system in all the booths and following State Election Commission's guidelines, we have made adequate police arrangement for all the booths," said Howrah's district magistrate Shubhanjan Das. The district's deputy commissioner (headquarters) Nishat Parvez said, "We are treating all the 987 booths as sensitive and structuring our mechanism in that way. We are ready to face any kind of situation".

According to sources in the Howrah Commissionerate, there will be 5000 security personnel, 27 mobile vans, 12 HRFS, 9 QRT, RAF and Combat force to man 987 booths on 314 poll premises as 7,90,840 voters go to exercise their franchise on Friday. "We have sealed 18 points and are keeping a watch on the movement of all the incoming and outgoing vehicles," said a senior police officer.

If Howrah is sensitive for its political ramifications, then Jhargarm Municiplaity is sensitive because of its long-drawn Maoist activities. "The rebels will observe the second death anniversary of Kishenji on November 24 and there is every possibility that they will try to disrupt the poll proceedings on November 22. We are not taking any chance and trying to make full-proof arrangement," a senior police officer said.

According senior police officers of the district, though the premises and the booths will be manned by the state police personnel, the entire town will be taken care of by the central forces. "We have sealed all the routes leading to Odisha and Bankura to stop any kind of infiltration," a senior police officer said, adding that there will be five armed police and five constables at 62 booths in the 17 wards of Jhargram. There will be total 1300 policemen of whom 400 are constables who will man the booths.

"We have done everything possible to beef up security at Jangalmahal and Midnapore," West Midnapore DM Golam Ansari said.

Midnapore, on the other hand, has 153 booths spread over 64 premises where 1,19,863 voters will go to exercise their franchise. "There will be one armed police and one constable per booth and the premises will be overseen by one ASI and he will be assisted by two constables. There will additional forces which will move if required," Amitava Dutta, SDO of Midnapore town and also the returning officer, said.

Online house tax payment system soon

Friday, 22 November 2013 10:00 administrator

The Pioneer 22.11.2013

Online house tax payment system soon

In order to ease the inconvenience faced by locals standing in long queues for hours and waiting for their turn for house tax payment, Municipal Corporation of Dehradun has decided to introduce the online house tax payment system soon.

Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Ashok Kumar said that MCD is going to computerise the whole system under the e-governance system of the Government of India.

He added that a budget of around Rs25 crore has been sanctioned by the GoI to computerise the MCD.However, MCD has already purchased software costing about Rs95 lakh to initiate the online house tax payment system.

"Users can easily pay their house tax from anywhere in India and they don't need to visit the municipal corporation office for tax payment," claimed Kumar. He said that users can also check their pending tax status from home.

"MCD aims to provide all technical support to the locals and in this regard I have given the instructions to the MNA to initiate the online tax payment system soon," said Dehradun Mayor, Vinod Chamoli.

Talking about the benefit of the online house tax payment system, MCD Tax Superintendent, SP Gupta said that this online tax payment system would prove beneficial for the public, especially the senior citizens as they would be able to pay their house tax from home by using their credit card/ debit card or through internet banking.

He said that the work is still in progress and the data entries of around seven circles out of the total 19 circles have been completed while the remaining work is in progress.

As per the chief spokesman of Congress in MCD, Jagdish Dhiman, this is an appreciable step of MCD as the public would not have to spend time and make effort to visit the MCD office regularly for house tax payment.

Soon, GPS on NMMT buses bought under JNNURM

Thursday, 21 November 2013 11:38 administrator

The Times of India 21.11.2013

Soon, GPS on NMMT buses bought under JNNURM

VASHI: Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT) chairman, Anwar Shaikh recently held talks with an advertising agency to ensure that all 190 buses, purchased under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

scheme, are connected with GPS. The agency works on a revenue-sharing model with the transport body and was given the advertising contract for the 30 AC buses to ensure that the remaining 160 regular CNG buses are also fitted with GPS.

"There are 190 buses purchased under the scheme and GPS had already been installed in 30 AC buses. I am holding talks with the advertiser so that GPS can also be installed in the remaining buses at his own cost,'' Shaikh said.

The tracking system will help passengers to know about the traffic conditions, any delay in transit time and also enable depots to keep track of the buses. The control room will also monitor a certain stretch of road by communicating with the driver.

Shaikh added that CCTV cameras were also installed in the buses for public safety. The cameras have been installed in 90 buses including 30 AC buses. The remaining buses, too, would get the facility soon.

The corporation would also need to work out on the maintenance of the CCTVs. Shaikh said he would hold a meeting with the agency that was given advertisement rights this week to know about the progress made in this regard.

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