Governing Oudh

Even as several states in India are contemplating on launching e-district
projects in their respective states, Uttar Pradesh has gone ahead and taken a
lead on its other counterparts. Not usually known for its e-governance prowess,
the state government leadership has gone ahead and launched the e-district in as
many as six districts in the state (namely Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar,
Sultanpur, Sitapur, Gorakhpur and Rae Bareli).

The Dignitaries

Incidentally, the launch of the e-district project in the state coincided
with the Dataquest e-Governance Mission Summit. The event was an opportunity for
the state government to showcase its ambitious e-district project,
subsequently as a pilot project. To talk more on the project, Mrityunjay Kumar
Narain, district magistrate, Sitapur was invited, who during the course of his
presentation added that the objective of the project included back-end
computerization for enabling efficient delivery of government services and
pro-actively providing a system for spreading information on government schemes,
planned developmental activities and status of current activities under NeGP.
The project is a part of the State Mission Mode Project (SMMP) under the NeGP
and the project aims to target certain high volume services and also undertake
back-end computerization to e-enable the delivery of these services through CSCs.

Seated right to left: Arvind Chaturvedi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Special Task Force; DS Srivastava, Special Secretary IT; SB Singh, Senior Technical Director NIC & SIO; VK Malhotra, Honorable chairman Board of Revenue; Mrityunjay Kumar Narain, DM Sitapur; LM Joshi; and Salil Khanna, Airtel addressing the audience queries

Addressing the gathering comprising senior government officials, Kumar added
that the various services offered under the project include issuance of ration
cards, surrender certificates, dues and recovery from land revenue, revenue
court services, etc.

Striving to make available government services at citizen doorstep, Mrityunjay Kumar Narain, District Magistrate, Sitapur informs the gathering on the efforts of his administration	Pioneer of the e-district project in Uttar Pradesh, VK Malhotra, Chairman, Board of Revenue addresses the audience on the various e-governance initiatives of the government

VK Malhotra, Chairman Board of Revenue who is also the overall head of the
project was also present at the summit to present an overall overview of the
state governments e-governance initiative. Delivering the keynote address,
Malhotra stressed on the significance of the e-district project and how it would
transform the lives of the common citizens by delivering government services at
the doorstep. His department has also bagged the best e-governed department
award from Computer Society of India (CSI) for digitizing its land related
records and making its office paperless across the state.

Credited with conceptualizing the first website of Uttar Pradesh government, Umesh Sinha, Secretary Planning addresses the gathering	Outlining the vision of the Uttar Pradesh government, DS Srivastava, Special Secretary IT & MD UP Electronics Corporation

Another Feather in the Hat

Another state government project that would be making waves in the coming
months is COSIS or Court Cases Information System. The project will seek to
address the plight of citizens who have had to wait for months and years on end
for justice owing to pile up of court cases. Making a presentation on the same
was Sanjeev Gahlaut, technical director NIC, High Court Lucknow bench. During
his presentation, Gahlaut said that apart from providing details of the lakhs of
court cases pending in the judiciary, it would also provide unique id to each
department for viewing/updating the details of their pending cases as well as
notices of the new cases. He further added that there is also a provision for
sending automatic email sending system for the new cases to be noticed in the
High Court. It also sends email to the respondent department, AG office and to
the petitioner along with the scanned copy of the notice details.

Underlining the significance of Public Private Partnership model in a e-governance projects is Salil Khanna, Airtel	SB Singh, senior Technical Director NIC & SIO UP government is one of the leading proponents of e-governance in the state

Giving details of the various e-governance initiatives of the state
government, DS Srivastava, Special Secretary IT during his presentation talked
more on projects like the State Wide Area Network, e-district project; state
data center for acting as a reservoir for state data; and Koshvani (the finance
portal of the state for providing real-time data to state departments in terms
of their budget allotments and grants etc). Srivastava also underlined the
vision of the government saying that we are committed to provide all government
services to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery
outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at
affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man.

The gathering was also addressed by SB Singh, state information officer and
senior technical director NIC who pointed out the importance of government
process re-engineering and how archaic rules need to be changed for simplifying
existing procedures for the general public. In line with the same, Singh went on
to mention that projects like e-district, e-scholarship, Bhulekh, electronic
filing of taxes and even tehsil diwas for online tracking of grievances have
been launched by the state government.

Singh also stressed on increasing capacity building and introducing change
management in the government set-up. The state government has already taken the
initiative of increasing capacity including launching the UPSWAN and state data
centers; introducing a fully-computerized sachivalaya and human resource MIS for
secretariat administration. Moreover, for brining about a change in the mindset
of government employees, we have also undertaken training programs for
secretariat employees and even the district administration, Singh said during
his presentation.

Participation from senior government officials made the panel discussion a
lively session with the audience also participating in the session. The panel
was chaired by VK Malhotra joined by senior bureaucrats like Arvind Chaturvedi,
DSP, UP Special Task Force; Mrityunjay Kumar Narain, DM Sitapur; SB Singh,
senior technical director NIC and SIO; and DS Srivastava, special secretary IT.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in