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Kahani Sitapur ki

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DQW Bureau
New Update



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A State Mission Mode Project (SMMP) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP),
e-district aims to target certain high volume services and also undertake
backend compu­terization to e-enable the delivery of these services through
Common Service Centers (CSCs). For every state that rolls out the e-district,
their implemen­tation strategy would be dependent on the infrastructure
currently being created under the NeGP, such as the SWAN, SDC, CSC and State
Gate­way. The e-District Scheme focuses on e-enabling the delivery of majority
of citizen-centric services that are administered by the district
administration. As Mrityunjay Kumar Narain, DM, Sitapur puts it, “The objectives
of the e-district include backend compu­terization to enable efficient delivery
of government services and to proactively provide a system of spreading
information on government schemes, planned developmental activities and status
of current activities under NeGP.”

However, the first state in India to deploy e-district was Malappuram in
Kerala, which incidentally also rolled out the world's largest rural wireless
broadband network through which payment of electricity bills, getting birth
certificates, etc, could be easily done by e-mails, thereby doing away with long
bus journeys and the wait at counters. The police stations of the district were
also made accessible to people through Akshya Kendras or information kiosks for
filing complaints to police stations. The Malappuram panchayat also introduced a
computer literacy program.

e-District in Oudh

For improving a host of citizen-centric services, the government of Uttar
Pradesh introduced the e-district pilot project in the six districts of the
state.

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The services include issuing of certificates for proof of income, birth,
death, caste and marriage and different types of pension, revenue-related
matters and other utility services. It also includes procuring identity cards,
land revenue and pension records and services related to the PDS and licenses.
The Lokvani Committee, headed by district magistrate was made the key driver for
implementing the scheme.

The state leadership has taken upon itself to change the mindsets of people.
As a first step in this direction, the state introduced e-district in six
districts in the state including Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), Ghaziabad,
Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Sitapur and Rai Barelli. “Work is steadily on in all the
six districts with software application development for modules completed by NIC.
A team of consultants has also reviewed all the modules in adherence with FRS.
Even the hardware procure­ment work is in progress and change manage­ment
training is in progress in all the districts,” said Ravindra Singh, Member SeMT,
Center for e-Governance, Uttar Pradesh.

Status update

Singh goes on to add that as per the e-district guidelines, work on data
digitization is already complete; a change management plan, along with
procurement and financial management plan has been chalked out; and most
importantly an IT infrastructure upgradation plan is in place.

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An e-district CSC center in
Sitapur, an example of how innovative use of technology can transform the
life of a common man by bringing government services to the doorstep

Divulging details of the training module, Singh added that under e-district
training, 964 government officers were imparted change management training
covering modules like orientation training, basic computer training, process
training, activity training and specialized and e-district application training.

Under data digitization activity, digitization of the details of 6,00,881
families as part of Pariwar Register was done; 5,152 revenue court cases; 50,242
cases of old age pension; 27,000 widow pension details; 8,173 handicap pension
details; 186,859 caste certificates digitization; 28,363 handicap certificate
digitization work was completed and that too within deadline.

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As part of the e-district pilot project, State Wide-Area Network (SWAN) for
connecting tehsils and blocks has already been established in Sitapur, wherein
six tehsils and 19 blocks are connected with 20 POPs being fully functional.
“Horizontal connectivity from SWAN to line departments through BSNL would be
done by the end of December 2008,” said Narain. For providing better
citizen-centric services, the district management has already established 21
common service centers (CSCs) functional in Sitapur and plans to start 75 more
by the end of this year. The Jan Suvidha Kendra at Collectorate is being managed
by Lokvani Society apart from the society managing a single window system at all
six tehsils.

Lokvani is an Internet kiosk-based G2C interface for providing various
information and public grievance redress in a transparent, accountable and
time-bound manner by forging effective public-private partnership (PPP). Lokvani
has bagged several Prime Minister award for Excellence in Public Administration
for 2006-2007; Golden Icon Award at National e-Governance Conference-2006 and a
special mention at Stockholm Challenge Awards 2006.

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With the requisite changes in procedures and with imaginative use of
technology and easy adoption, the common man's trust in government has been
re-enforced. E-district has not only managed to improve upon the implementation
and delivery of services but also continuous improvement of services leading to
hassle-free and reduced manual interface resulting in reduced corruption.

(Courtesy: DQ)

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