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E-Governance

Online registration of grievances introduced

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The Hindu 18.08.2009

Online registration of grievances introduced

Staff Reporter

To ensue speedy disposal of complaints

— Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

facility: Minister for Environment, Sports and Youth Welfare T.P.M. Maideen Khan inaugurating the online registration of grievances in Tirunelveli on Monday.

TIRUNELVELI: The Tirunelveli district administration has launched online registration of public grievances submitted during the weekly grievance day meetings being conducted at the Collectorate on every Monday to ensue speedy disposal of complaints.

Since the process has been simplified and decentralised with the software developed by the National Informatics Centre here, the public can register their complaints even at block development office, taluk offices, office of the Divisional Revenue Officers or at the Collectorate, depending on their convenience, and track their grievances with the help of a ‘key number’ being given on registration of the complaint.

As the district administration has connected all government offices here with Tamil Nadu Statewide Area Network (SWAN) and working on providing Internet connectivity to all 425 village panchayats, the petitioners can know the status of their grievances and the replies given in the panchayat itself.

The answer given by the officials concerned will be evaluated by the a four-member team comprising Collector, District Revenue Officer, Project Officer, District Rural Development Agency and Project Officer, Mahalir Thittam, to assess the quality of the solution, which will be available on the Internet for next one year.

Launching the facility, Minister for Environment, Youth Welfare and Sports T.P.M. Maideen Khan opined that the computerisation of grievance disposal would ensure transparency and improve efficiency of the official machinery’s functioning.

Collector M. Jayaraman, on whose initiatives the online system was introduced, appealed to Minister for Information Technology Poongothai Aladi Aruna, to help transforming the Collectorate into a ‘paperless office.’ The ‘project report’ of this innovative exercise would be submitted to the Minister shortly,” Mr. Jayaraman informed.

MLAs V. Karuppasamy Pandian, M. Appavu and N. Maalairaja, Mayor A.L. Subramanian, and Deputy Mayor K. Muthuramalingam participated.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 August 2009 05:07
 

Speech software to help you navigate the city

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The Hindu 03.08.2009

Speech software to help you navigate the city

M. Dinesh Varma

It is LatticeBridge Infotech’s utility service

 


Launched on Vodafone, it will soon be extended to other operators

Air timings, movies, STD/ISD codes, MTC bus routes are the four services, to start with


CHENNAI: Speech software is now at hand to tell mobile users which MTC buses ply the route they want to take, which movie is playing where or what the ISD code for a city is.

Chennai-based software solutions provider LatticeBridge Infotech has launched a utility voice portal that uses speech identification technology to provide value-added services to mobile users.

Toll line 55305

The service, which has been launched on Vodafone, will soon be extended to other operators as a State-wide utility. The toll line 55305 will be the same for operators across the State.

“We have started with four services and our content team is working on other areas such as agricultural commodity prices,” C.Mohan Ram, managing director, LatticeBridge Infotech told The Hindu.

The voice portal provides information in English, Tamil and Hindi on air timings, movies, STD/ISD codes and MTC bus routes.

Though the MTC data is the only one that is mapped in Chennai, it has relevance for travellers coming into Chennai or for tourists visiting the capital.

“The idea is to provide localised value-added services rather than the usual “ABC” fare of astrology, Bollywood and cricket,” Mr.Ram said.

Voice prompts scores

He says speech technology using voice prompts scores over other user-activated information services such as navigating through a series of push key sequences as it is more straight-forward option for the base of pyramid mobile users.

LatticeBridge, which also runs an SMS-based service for the workforce of an automotive firm in Chennai, has found that almost 60 per cent of the 35,000 text messages that land each month on its server are erroneous.

“Speech-based services can also have value for urbane users on the move who decide on a movie on the spur of the moment,” said Mr.Ram.

Noise filter

With a speech to noise filter ratio of 60:40, the software can work even when the caller is asking for information in a fairly noisy background. Whenever the user’s request is inaudible or unclear, he is asked to repeat the prompt.

Since its launch, the service has been averaging about 2,000 calls a day. Information on movies is the most popular request with peaks on Friday through Sunday followed by Chennai bus routes and airway timings. The average call duration is about 96 seconds.

Last Updated on Monday, 03 August 2009 04:14
 

Tiruchi Corporation to take to e-tender system from today

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The Hindu 10.07.2009

Tiruchi Corporation to take to e-tender system from today

S.Ganesan

Bids for all works valued above Rs.10 lakh to be submitted online henceforth

 


The e-bids could be opened only after the expiry of the deadline for submission

Registered contractors have already been briefed about the system


TIRUCHI: The Tiruchi Corporation would take to the e-tender system from Friday.

Bids for all works valued above Rs.10 lakh would have to be submitted online henceforth and the corporation would no longer accept submission of bid documents in person, Commissioner, T.T.Balsamy told The Hindu.

Statewide initiative

The move comes as part of a state-wide initiative under which all corporations have been instructed to go for the e-bid system, introduced in association with the National Informatics Centre.Apart from enabling filing of bids from anywhere, the system was also expected to usher in transparency in the process.

The corporation has already made available tender notices and schedules online wherein contractors could download the schedules free of cost from the State government portal, tenders.tn.gov.in. But till now they were submitting the hardcopy of the bids.

Digital signature

From Friday, bids have to be uploaded online through the same portal. Special software has already been installed and senior officials including the Commissioner, City Engineer and Executive Engineers have been provided with digital signature cards for accessing and processing the bids.

The e-bids could be opened by the officials only after the expiry of the deadline for submission.

Officials said an approved private agency, which has been roped in to assist the civic body in implementing the programme, has been asked to nominate a couple of trained staff to assist and clarify doubts of contractors at the corporation office. Registered contractors have already been briefed about the system recently.

Leased line network

Meanwhile, the corporation has also decided to upgrade its own online network by going in for a managed leased line network of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.

The present 256 Kbps leased lines has been found to be inadequate and too slow for the online services, especially the online tax payment facility.

The corporation would invest about Rs.11 lakhs for upgrading to 1/2 Mbps leased lines.

Last Updated on Friday, 10 July 2009 10:48
 
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