Panchayats to implement e-gov solutions

NEW DELHI: In a bid to take e-governance to the grass root level, the central

government has decided to implement e-governance in the panchayats.






Under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), the Panchayati Raj ministry is
preparing a mission mode project for e-governance at the gram panchayat level.

It is envisaged that this would enable all panchayats in the country to obtain

the benefits of IT in implementing e-governance solutions with reference to

identified services delivered at the panchayat level.






The government had recently unveiled the components of NeGP covering 26 mission
mode projects and eight support components to be implemented at the central,

state and local government levels.






The vision of the plan is to make all government services accessible to the
common man in his locality. The plan is estimated to cost Rs 23,000 crore over

the next five years and the entire effort involves 500 implementation agencies,

two lakh sites and 70,000 man-years of effort.






A few panchayats in the States have been implementing pilots project for
e-Governance at the panchayat level with support of the state government

concerned. It is under the Central Plan that common standards and benchmarks

will be developed so as to ensure the integrated application of IT to further

good governance at the panchayat level.






According to the minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, e-governance
is one of the essential elements under the proposed Gram Swaraj Programme also.








“Similarly, capacity building and training are also part of this new scheme
proposed under 2006-07. The outlays are yet to be finalized for this, but Rs

eight crore is proposed for this purpose in 2006-07,” he added.






Other components of e-governance for panchayats include basic computer
infrastructure, software and basic process re-engineering. Activity mapping for

panchayat basic services would also assist this process.






Aiyar said that the objective of this is to support all state governments and
panchayats to make effective use of IT in improving internal management

processes and decision making in panchayats.






He added, “This would also help panchayat in using IT as a tool for
transparency, disclosure of information to citizens and social audit, to better

deliver its mandated services to the citizens and e-procurement. States and

panchayats can also use IT for electronic tagging and tracking of funds

transferred to panchayat from higher level of governments, including rapid bank

transfer of funds, tracking fund transfers to, and expenditures of the

panchayats.”






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