The Indian Express 03.02.2014
PMC civic services set to go online from April 1
If all goes as planned by the civic administration, residents of the
city will soon be able to track their applications related to grievances
and other files moved in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) online
from April 1.
As part of its e-governance project, the PMC has decided to bring all
the software used in various civic departments on one platform so that
they can be linked. “Many civic departments are computerised, but the
software are on different platforms, because of which they are not
interconnected. The PMC is working on bringing all computerised systems
on one software platform,” said Abhishek Krishna, Additional Municipal
Commissioner.
The recently appointed agency has converted most of the software used
by civic departments keeping in mind the plan to establish a single
computerised platform. “There are certain difficult systems like the one
used in birth and death registeration but the agency has been able to
include it in the new system,” he said, adding that the agency would
also design software for other civic services that are yet to be
computerised.
“The focus would be on developing a file tracking system and
grievance system for bringing transparency and increasing
accountability. We want it to be launched on April 1,” said Krishna.
He added that a total of 16 administrative services would go online
from the next financial year and the process of adding the remaining
would continue.
The new e-governance plan includes computerisation of legal, urban
community, central stores, disaster management, anti-encroachment and
health by bringing the administrative process on the electronic system
for day-to-day work.
As a mandatory reform for the civic bodies reaping the benefits of the
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the PMC had to
implement the e-governance project to improve the delivery of its civic
services.
The issuing of licences, certificates and permissions involves
communication with citizens and the system required transparency and
accountability, Krishna said, adding that the civic body aimed to make
the system easily accessible to the public.
The computerised system for disaster management would involve linking
the health, fire safety, anti-encroachment and building control
departments to be interconnected for swift response to any disaster
situation. Meanwhile, the civic body that has installed audio-visual
system in the renovated general body meeting hall is now connecting the
system with the television sets at the offices of each civic
office-bearer and head of the department so that the proceedings can be
watched and tracked by them sitting in their respective offices.
“As of now, heads of all civic departments have to attend the general
body meeting to respond to queries and issues raised by elected
representatives. They have to sit till the end of the meeting even if
there is no issue of their respective department being raised. This
keeps them unavailable for any other work, including public
communication. The live telecast of the meeting on their TV sets in
their office will help them rush to the meeting hall only if they are
required,” said a civic officer.
