Indian Express 08.01.2010
Gurgaon residents to log in, connect with civic body
For the tech-savvy residents of the Millennium City who are dissatisfied with the functioning of the one-and-a-half year old Municipal Corporation, but do not have the time to visit the officials concerned, a web portal will soon provide a two-way communication. The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has been conducting trial runs for its website over the last one month and the site is expected to be launched by this month end.
The officials are withholding the website address for now; it will be announced once the site is “flawlessly” ready, they say.
The site will be bilingual - Hindi and English - where residents can check the ongoing work on house tax payment and updating birth, death and marriage certificates, among others.
For those who do not know where the MCG office is located in the city, the site will give a real-time Google India image to guide the user to the office at Civil Lines from his/her current location.
The MCG has asked a private company (name withheld) to construct the official website. “The Corporation does not have a logo yet. The homepage of the website will have an option where citizens can choose or update logos, after which we will decide on one. They can also interact through blogs, which will be screened and published online. Also, when a citizen writes about a problem on the site and clicks the ‘Submit’ button, he will get to know about the time taken to complete the work and the official who will be in charge of it,” said MCG Commissioner Rajesh Khullar.
The website will also have a personal blog of the commissioner. Since the site will have the option of online payment and other personal details of individuals, MCG officials are making sure they use a private server instead of a public domain, which increases the risk of misuse, said the site’s technical advisor who did not wish to be named. The website will also have a compilation of various Acts and Rules relevant to the MC. It will have a section for news where the public address and press statements will be put up.
“Our aim is to ensure that citizens get information on all ongoing projects at the click of the mouse and do not need to file RTIs. They can sign in and won’t need to update details like date of birth, address, phone numbers every time they want to fill a form,” the MC Commissioner said. The website will have an option for online polling, where people cast their votes for different topics.
