E-Governance Roadmap for Delhi launched

E-Governance Roadmap for Delhi launched

Staff Reporter

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/11/stories/2007011110630400.htm

Sheila Dikshit hopes that paperless secretariat would soon become a reality

 

 

 

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday launched the E-Governance Roadmap (EGRM) for Delhi that specifies the Government’s e-governance vision and strategies to achieve the developmental agenda of the Capital.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Dikshit reiterated that the foundation of good governance lay in adopting tools and methods that bring transparency to government functioning. She said EGRM was not a one-time document but a continuously evolving exercise.

Urging officials to go beyond making notes in the usual manual files and adopt latest technologies for improving service delivery to the people, she expressed the hope that her dream of a paperless secretariat would soon become a reality and change the work culture apart from curbing corruption.

The exercise of developing the EGRM was carried out by Ernst & Young India by studying the needs and expectations of various stakeholders, meeting nodal information technology officials, heads of departments and political leaders. The EGRM had further been standardised by National Institute for Smart Government, Hyderabad.

The EGRM would help in better governance by identifying prioritised e-governance “initiatives” and “services” that need to be rolled out in the next five years. These services, numbering 115 in all, have been classified as G2C, G2B, G2G, G2E, G2N for citizens, businesses, other Government departments, employees and non-government organisations respectively.

Various sectors

The e-governance initiatives have also been identified for various sectors like health, education, welfare, infrastructure, finance, revenue, support and administration. The identified initiatives have also been rated in terms of criticality as well as feasibility and 29 of such initiatives have been identified for immediate rollout.

Alongside, the Capacity Building Road Map (CBRM) has been created and it specifies the institutional capacities that need to be built up to support the successful rollout of EGRM.

Delhi to promote e-governance

New Delhi: The Delhi government has set up a study group to accelerate the process of computerising all its major departments and promote e-governance, Planning and Finance Minister A.K. Walia said Friday.

After a review meeting Friday, Walia instructed senior officers of the departments of trade and taxes, excise and entertainment to expedite computerisation to “utilise e-governance in the true spirit for increasing transparency and efficiency”.

He also ordered the constitution of a study group under the chairmanship of the commissioner trade and taxes to look into the manpower policy. The group will submit its report within a month.

State authorities said that efforts were being intensified to ensure online filing of monthly returns by 6,000 traders. Currently, only 700 key dealers are filing online returns.

Walia has further directed both excise and entertainment departments to conduct a work-study to simplify the issuance of import and transport permits.

E-gov: MCD in finance control mode

E-gov: MCD in finance control mode
 
Aanchal Bansal

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=191698
 
New Delhi, July 6: A financial crunch in the MCD and ‘‘unsatisfactory’’ performance of Citizen Service Bureaux (CSB) has turned out to be a stumbling block in computerising vital departments of the corporation.

MCD’s IT department had proposed that the contract of setting up a central server and maintaining it be given to government agency C-DACS at a cost of Rs 2.5 lakh per month.

The MCD Standing Committee, however, decided to first set up a five-member committee to examine the project, given the ‘‘unsatisfactory’’ performance of CSBs that were established as part of the project.

Standing Committee member Brij Mohan Sharma who is part of the committee, said that as the total cost of the project has been estimated at over Rs 5.6 crore, it’s essential to look into the project in detail.

‘‘We found that certain CSBs aren’t functioning properly, so it’s essential to ensure that this project is worth the expenditure,’’ he said.

As part of the E-governance programme launched two years ago, the MCD was to computerise the engineering and health departments, including interconnecting all MCD hospitals, initiating e-tendering, setting up public grievances and monitoring system and a database of property tax assessment.

The MCD, however, lacks a central server to host the various application software developed for its vital departments.‘‘We’ve finished work for computerisation of Swami Dayanand Hospital and Rajan Babu TB Hospital, developed software for e-tendering and have already set up a Land Area Network (LAN) for Townhall. But all this is useless, till we have a server to host the applications,’’ said a senior official.

Sharma added that the committee will also look at getting the funds from the state and central government. ‘‘The MCD is already short of funds and this project will add to our financial burden,’’ he said.

As per department estimates, setting up its own server can cost the MCD over Rs 15 crore. ‘‘Besides, we need trained staff to maintain and monitor the server 24X7 and 365 days. We don’t have the capacity to have such a huge setup,’’ said the official.