Coimbatore: After the commissionerate of municipal administration
implemented the new integrated and centralized software – Urban Tree,
the revenue collection of the Coimbatore Corporation went down by Rs 10
crore in October in comparison to the same period last year.

It is not just Coimbatore. The revenue collection of the Madurai
Corporation also dropped by Rs 16 crore in the same period. It was worst
in the case of the Trichy Corporation as it was not able to collect any
revenue due to the problems in the software. This software was
introduced across 12 corporations in the state two months ago. It was
introduced in Trichy as a pilot project in September.

The Madurai Corporation earned revenue of Rs 52.64 crore in October,
2016. But this year, it collected only Rs 36.82 crore. Similarly, the
Coimbatore Corporation made revenue of Rs 28 crore in October, 2016.
Only Rs 19.5 crore has been collected in the same period this year.

In Trichy, it was not a smooth run. “Delay in migrating to the common
web-based software has affected basic services to the citizens that
include issuance of birth and death certificates. The issue has been
unresolved resulting in the accumulation of over 2,000 applications for
birth certificates alone in all the four zones of the city corporation.
The process, otherwise, takes not more than a week or 10 days,” said an
official of the Trichy Corporation.

The Coimbatore Corporation could not issue a single birth or death
certificate in October, resulting in loss of several lakhs in revenue.
“More than the revenue, public have been affected badly,” said a
corporation official.

The sad part is that the state government has invested nearly Rs 25
crore on the software. Owing to its failure, all corporations have made
representations to switch back to their older software. Activists said
that similar software was proposed and scrapped in Coimbatore a decade
ago. The same software is now being implemented at an escalated cost
across the state.

This software was supposed to simplify the process and allow public to
apply for services from their homes. But just like any new system,
migrating to this system without enough infrastructure facility and
expertise has taken a toll on the residents.

All the corporations were asked to integrate to this software so that
it could be overviewed from Chennai at the same time. The processes were
also supposed to be simpler.

“Residents may not even have to go to the corporation office if the
software implementation had been smooth. But due to server issues and
other problems, corporations are unable to provide any services,” said
an official. The Coimbatore Corporation has already switched back to the
older system.

Madurai Corporation commissioner Aneesh Sekhar said that after
Coimbatore Corporation’s withdrawal, the system has become quicker.
“Migrating to any new system will have its challenges. We are facing
some issues. We are hopeful that it will be resolved soon,” he told TOI.

The commissioner of municipal administration G Prakash could not be
reached despite various attempts for a comment. This software will
provide a common interface for 29 services of all corporations. But
server issues have caused a lot of trouble.