Binu Alex

AHMEDABAD/GHODRA: Thanks to the initiative of the district collector and the world's largest IP-based e-governance project of Gujarat, villagers of Panchmahals now travel only to their nearest STD/ISD kiosk to obtain their ration cards or sanction for old age pension.

On December 31 last year, Gujarat Online Ltd. (GOL)- a joint venture between United Telecom Ltd. and Gujarat-based Madhukant Agro-Exports Ltd., in a record time, completed the networking of the entire state of Gujarat, which they will operate, maintain, and after eight years will transfer to the state government at a token fee of Re 1.

The networking of Gujarat, much ahead of the Andhra Pradesh project, goes down to the taluka level whereas AP has the network up to the district level only. However, since the project has not been as widely publicized as that of AP, the result is that no one has started using it. For the sake of press publicity, video conferencing is carried out periodically but waking up none from their slumber.

"But things will change once the eGovernance is put in place. I believe it will not be years but months before the government keeps itself with the date of an efficient and transparent electronic administration," said a confident PB Shyam, CEO of GOL, whose boys say they dare to make Gujarat an e-state.

But for some, it has already begun. Jayanti S Ravi, the Indian Administrative Officer of Gujarat cadre is no stranger to Information Technology. Since the time of her stint as managing director of Gujarat Informatics Ltd. (GIL), she has made it a point to squeeze the IT down to the level of people, what she describes as the only beneficiaries of any project.

So when she was made the Collector of eastern part of Gujarat, Panchmahals, a backward district with a significant tribal populace, no one thought that the implementation would be easy as it is today.

With eleven talukas, six towns and 1212 villages, the district has its headquarters in Godhra. The total population of the district as per the 2001 census is 20.24 lakh. Literacy level at less than 50 per cent is lower than the state average.

The collector's initiative has made even the police join the project. District Superintendent of Police Raju Bhargava, told CNS that even the complaints will be registered online. "If it forms the shape of FIR, my officer will go the person to take a signature and it will be converted to FIR," he said.

But more than FIR, what the e-governance in Panchmahals has done to the people is the easiest way of getting old age pensions and ration cards, two of the important part of any rural life. A similar project in Dhar in Madhya Pradesh failed to get the response and hence some of the top brasses were worried that this project named Mahiti Shakti, will also be in doldrums.

"But in MP, the governance was kept to the government level whereas we made it in the public domain. That made all the difference. After all we are dealing with public and public money. They have the right to know where it comes from and where it goes," said Ravi in an exclusive interview to CNS.

Primarily, the portal, www.mahitishakti.net is indented to provide a single window to all relevant information and services on almost all the aspects that the government has or plan to implement.

The modus operandi is simple. Anyone who wishes to avail the benefit has to go his nearest STD/ISD kiosk, which is also known as info kiosk. He has to submit the necessary documents to the Info Kiosk owner and he fills the form online. Within five minutes, everything is complete. The form reaches the Assistant Collector, the issuing authority, within no time. He will send his circle officer to scrutinize the documents and reports back within a day or two. In four days flat, the ration card or old age pension sanction letter reaches the Info Kiosk who in turn will give it to the applicant.

"At the moment, we have prioritized ration cards and old age pension processing online. Once it is formally launched, almost all the forms will be submitted and processed online," said the Sub Divisional Magistrate and the Deputy Collector, Mohmmad Shahid.

"But people can get all the information that is available in this office through the kiosk," added Shahid, IAS.

People have a high degree of dealings with the government, especially the rural areas for various schemes and subsidies. Grievance redressal and monitoring of complaints pertaining to the delivery of services is another important aspect for good governance. But the important scenario emerging today is the right to information. The schemes and yojanas remain on paper or in government files if it is not reached out to the beneficiaries.

"We have been given free hand by the Collector to prepare whatever is in the public interest and to the extent that she is able to sanction," said Rakesh Patel, the District Informatics Officer of NIC.

To make this into a reality, the Collectorate of Godhra joined hands with the Concept Center for Electronic Governance (CCEG) of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to develop a pilot project for enabling the Citizen to Government (C-G) and Government to Citizen (G-C) transactions using Information Technology as a medium.

The Concept Center for Electronic Governance (CCEG) has been set up by IIM (A) with the twin objectives of identifying worthwhile applications and disseminating knowledge and skills for successful implementation of electronic governance applications amongst the bureaucracy and other stake holders. It develops "proof of concept applications" at the Center, which are brought into the realm of actual implementation with the partnership of industry and bureaucracy.

Since then, the offices of the Collectorates have changed. And changed for good. No manual transactions are allowed. Everything from collecting the posts to disposal of the files is computerized and the GSWAN (Gujarat State Wide Area Network) put into practice by GOL comes into play with officials exchanging files and notes for day to day governance through their PC.

In the picture of the efforts are the offices of the district Panchayat, Police Superintendent, the divisional controller of State Transport, Employment exchange and many more. Playing the key role in the implementation part is National Informatics Center (NIC), Remote Sensing and Communications Unit (RESECO) and GIL.

Data pertaining to schemes under the DRDA (District Rural Development Agency) and DPB (District Planning Board), TASP (Tribal Area Sub Plan) as also activities like scarcity etc., giving details like the name of the scheme, names of beneficiaries sanctioned in the last financial year, details of work undertaken, name of agency implementing the scheme and current status etc. is also online.

The web-enabled version of the Gujarat Geographic Information System (GGIS) giving details of the resource availability in terms of 95 parameters of every village of the district is functional on a query-based system.

What any PCO kiosk needs to do when approached by a customer is to log on and provide these information, which will be free of charge. The forms along with checklist giving details of documents to be attached with the form at the time of submission are available online.

But for online submission of application, he can charge Rs 10 for application form and Rs 20 for submission. With long distance calls being made cheaper, the commissions on phone calls for these kiosks have also gone down and they find this alternative a better chance to earn.

"It is not only an earning exercise but I feel it as a service also. I have stood under blazing sun for hours just to get a blank form. Now I can provide and even submit it within minutes," said Girish Joshi, an Info Kiosk owner in Godhra.

Joshi gets at least 10 to 15 applicants per day. The mouth to mouth word has spread fast. The local administration is still waiting to launch it formally though informally the services have already begun.

Mitesh Parikh, Deputy Mamlatdar and the officer in charge of the IT services, receives at least 10 to 15 applications everyday for setting up the info kiosk.

"We screen the applications and also scrutinize the applicant's enthusiasm towards IT and his financial status before sanctioning," he told CNS.

The first condition the applicant has to fulfill is that he should be the owner of a STD/ISD kiosk and should invest for a good PC system. There is also a deposit of Rs 8000 out of which Rs 5000 is refundable. This amount will be put into a corpus fund, the interest from which will sustain the day to day running of this project.

Sanctioned Info Kiosks owners are given out of turn loan to buy the equipment under various schemes already in place.

The kiosk owners, in turn will get the following:

1) Internet connection for a year (In Rural Areas) under the Internet dhaba scheme in co-ordination with the Telecom Department. [which would otherwise cost about Rs 6500].

2) 2 day training on use of the facility and familiarization with various forms etc.

3) A free CD containing the forms, RESECO data and other static data which the kiosk person can print and deliver offline. On line and on site help is also provided.

4) Manual and literature in Gujarati on the access and effective utilization of the portal.

In the offing is an electronic newsletter to feature some of the important aspects of utilities to the people listed below:

a) Tele-medicine: a concurrent feature on health in simple language and responses to e-mails received from the public given by a team of leading doctors and medical practitioners of Godhra. Directory giving names and telephone numbers of leading doctors of Panchmahals both in Private and Government Sector.

b) Legal Help - Details of legal aid available and legal remedy under different acts with e-mail based response system by a team of leading lawyers of the Bar Association of Godhra.

c) Science Corner - Articles on latest scientific development as also interesting topics with quizzes, questions, puzzles etc. for the General Public with a QA System for question and doubts raised by the public.

d) Children Corner -Content on primary, secondary education developed by the DPEP coordinators.

e) Agriculture Corner- Information pertaining to good agricultural practices and advises which will be prepared by the District Agriculture officer with inputs from various experts and agencies.

f) Dairy Corner - Useful data and information pertaining to the animal husbandry sector, which will be prepared by the dairy and the District Animal Husbandry Officer.

g) Astrological and Matrimonial Corner with the involvement of local resource persons.

h) Archeological & Environmental update

i) Panchayati Raj Corner - Static materials (such as bare acts, laws, provisions etc., which do not change on a frequent basis) on provisions of Panchayati Raj including women's empowerment and responses to queries.

j) Extensive material on vocational guidance provided by the Information Directorate.

Computerized Land Record access is expected to be completed within this year and if everything goes well, the authorities also plan to start electronic payment of utilities. All these are apart from the access to the GRs of the Govt. from the Gujaratindia.com website as well as a host of information from various government and other web sites including data on Census, Rural development etc.

It is anyone's guess that for any project to run successfully there should be sustainability. It has been observed in government sectors that ambitious plans go down the drains once the originator of the plan gets transferred. Jayanti S Ravi, very well knowing this fact has made the project viable and sustainable even if she gets transferred elsewhere. She formed a trust named e-governance trust to run the show.

The trust comprises of Collector Panchmahals, District Superintendent of Police, District Development Officer and District Treasury Officer apart from the members selected locally.

The Collector also plans to utilize 84 outlets of Panchmahals Dairy and 22 outlets of the District Co-Operative Banks to provide information at grassroot level. But the officials have to work hard to maintain it in the long run. There are bottlenecks that may hinder the full implementation of the project. As the portal may have a lot of documents that need legal permission of the concerned departments, the permission for putting such information on the net must be taken in advance from those departments from time to time. Infrastructure is another vital but worrying aspect. At the moment, it is not sufficient. But the project has taken off with whatever available at the moment. But the GOL laid GSWAN network will solve the problem sooner or later.