E Governance –
Happening!!!!
"E Governance" - a jargon or
reality. A lot have been written and said on this topic. Various State
Governments have projects in the pipeline for implementing E Governance.
Some State Governments such as that of AP and Karnataka have been
frontrunners and laid out examples for others to follow.
This article is intended to throw
some light on e governance, implementation issues and status in some of
the lesser savvy states of India.
Understanding E
Governance
Any Government is "of the people for the people
and by the people". The main function is to service the common man. By
servicing the common man we mean, providing all that a common man requires
for a happy and peaceful life. This apart from the basic necessities of
food, clothing and shelter also includes the services necessary for a
living. These include obtaining a ration card or a driving license,
property registration and transfer matters, obtaining a passport, or
birth/ death certificates or for that matter school/ college admission. If
a common man is able to obtain all of these without going through a series
of tables and corrupt government officials, it will be beneficial for both
the common man and the Government.
E Governance is nothing but "the
ability to obtain government services through non traditional electronic
means, enabling access to government information and completion of
government transactions on an anywhere, anytime basis and in conformance
with equal access requirement".
It offers potential to reshape the
public sector and build relationships between citizens and Government.
Online delivery of services benefits both Government and its constituents,
as it lowers cost and makes services more
accessible.
E Governance –
Implementation
E Governance is implemented through
intranets which connects the Government (various departments and offices)
and the common man (through cyber terminals). The first and the foremost
requirement is a complete computerization of all the major departments of
the Government. The next step is to set up a Wide Area Network that
connects and links all these departments and offices. The last and the
most vital step is to make this facility available to the common man
either through nodes that are connected to this WAN and installed at
various places in the State or through a web site which can be accessed
from any cyber terminal.
E Governance – Success
Stories
Some of the successful cases not
only speak volume about the capability but also sets an example for other
State Governments to seriously consider E Governance.
-
The most zealous converts to e
governance are interestingly the bureaucrats in Gujarat, decidedly an
old economy state. The State Road Transport Department’s "computerized
check post project" as reduced corruption at the 10 octroi posts on
Gujarat’s border to "zero level" and enhanced revenue earnings from Rs
60 crores in 1998–99 to Rs 250 crores in 1999 – 2000. Not bad for a
scheme that cost Rs 18 crores to implement. The moment a truck enters
Gujarat its weight gets recorded on a computer and vehicle number plate
and all is videographed. This audio visual information is instantly
accessible at the central control room in Ahmedabad. No longer it is
possible for local officials to cut their own deals and record a lower
weight against a bribe. The system is foolproof and absolutely leaves no
room for jugglery. While octroi receipts have quadrupled over the past
year , the number of trucks entering Gujarat has dropped 25%. Corrupt
truck owners tend to avoid a state where under invoicing is not
possible.
-
Friends – Fast Reliable Instant
Efficient Service started in Thiruvananthapuram is a series of counters
set up by Kerala IT Ministry and the city municipal corporation to allow
citizens to pay bills under 17 different heads from electricity to 352
types of university exam fees. Running 7 days a week, the friends
computers are linked to those of the respective recipients across the
city.
-
In Mafipura, a tiny village of 39
families in Dhar district of Central MP, e governance covers very basic
needs. A broken hand pump meant the village had lost its only source of
water and with the BDO absent as usual, there was no one to complain to.
Tentative residents went to the village cyberdhaba to email their
complaint to the collector at the district HQ. Two days later an
engineer turned up, email print out in hand. Mafipura is a part of an
intranet called Gyandoot, a rural development project that won MP an
international award earlier this year. Administered through 32 kiosks,
it has nullified the rate of the lower bureaucracy. Even some of the
primary health centers have been linked to a district hospital. This Jan
even an operation done at a PHC through video conferencing.
-
Voice – Vijayawada Online
Information Center
-
PRISM – Punjab Registration
Information System Module.
-
http://www.punjabgovt.org/ is the
official website of what is one of India’s less acclaimed state
government’s. A facility called "File Monitoring" was introduced on an
experimental basis. If you clicked on the icon and typed the necessary
query, it told you what the status of the file was, whether it had
reached the CM’s office, which functionary had taken a look at it, which
department he had sent it to and when. Imagine getting to know this all
important information without running from table to table and babu to
babu.
And few journeys can be as
mysterious as the travels of a file through a government office. Two
years ago, the Department of Administrative Refors charted a route map
of a particular Union Government File. A typical file on an average
finds its way to not one or two but full 48 tables from initiation to
final clearance. Its an in5teresting piece of trivia for you and me. But
for an applicant who seeks some monetary compensation that is his due,
it can be a living hell. Tracking a government file doesn’t take luck,
it takes miracle. Hence if there is a website which gives you this vital
information it is half the work done.
Any discussion on e governance
cannot be complete without talking about Karnataka and
AP.
-
The SMART (Simple Moral
Accountable Responsive and Transparent) System of the AP Government is a
phenomenal example of what e governance can do not only to clean up the
administration and bring down the corruption levels but also to improve
the efficiency and speed of functioning of the Government machinery.
Chandrababu Naidu has initiated a drive to put up kiosks all over the
state where many transactions of the citizen with the Government can
take place through the use of computers. The whole state is being
networked with APWAN so that payment of taxes and getting certificates
like SC/ST/OBC or even ration cards can become much faster and free of
corruption. For e.g. in the registration department for property
transfers, computerization has been introduced. As a result the
transactions that used to take two weeks or more are now done within an
hour. The great advantage of the citizen becoming aware of his rights,
how his case is being handled, when he can get a decision etc. are not
only empowering the citizens but also incidentally reducing corruption.
AP Government also puts up all the government orders on the web site and
also have information kiosks where government offices can be easily
accessed. Ex American President Bill Clinton was given a driving license
through this initiative.
-
State Government of Himachal
Pradesh is also in the process of implementing E
Governance.
Even several ministries have taken
initiatives to move towards e governance.
For ex. Under Ministry of
Textiles, Economic Research and Market Intelligence Unit has been set up
at the office of Textile Commissioner Mumbai, for collection and
dissemination of information on production, design and fashions
etc.
Computerization of the Ministry of
Parliamentary Affairs is in Progress etc.
E Governance - Skepticism
Persists
Despite the happy stories, its not
as if every ounce of skepticism has vanished.
E governance faces two
obstacles:
One, it is expensive, calling for
heavy capital expenditure as well as the fact that salaries have to be
paid to armies of human employees who have, in reality been replaced by
a single machine.
Two, the problem of mindset that
of a digital divide within the government.
Union IT minister Pramod Mahajan
has declared 2001 as the year of "e governance" and has advised every
central and state ministry and department to earmark "2 – 3% of its
planned budget for an "IT for the masses" project.
Needless to say a complete
implementation and realization of e governance will take a long time.
Over and Above the other earlier discussed reasons, one of the major
hurdle is Net Connectivity. In US where one in about two households has
a Net connection are talking of voting for the next President at the
click of the mouse. In Portugal, motorists crossing a bridge can pay the
toll using their cell phones. In Singapore, the port formalities take
less than 15 minutes, thanks to EDI.
These things though look straight
from fiction movie are really not out of reach. Once the Net penetration
increases a lot of positive steps can be taken to bring the citizens
closer to the Government and vice versa.
It will be hence just a matter of
time when we can get all that we require for peaceful living at the
click of a mouse without actually getting up from our tables. Finally
how much actually happens and how much a common man eventually benefits
we have to wait and see. But so far things look good and worth the
wait.
Dr Sarika
Kulkarni
