KARNATAKA: IT At The Helm Of Affairs

The

education department, with technical assistance from National Infor-matics

Center (NIC), has established a com-puter center at the office of the

Commissioner for Public Instruction (CPI). The primary objective was to spread

computer awareness among various sections of the department to speed work and

automate routine jobs, along with eliminating delay in related work. But later

on, the emphasis was shifted to make use of computers for decision making

processes and making department work more transparent. This was done by

computerizing the recruitment process of primary and secondary school teachers,

officers’ posting and transfer of teachers.

Computerization has helped the

education department in the monthly monitoring review, maintenance of officer’s

database, documentation, pay-roll, generation of list of grades of ministerial

staff and secondary school teachers, teachers’ recruitment to primary and

secondary schools, posting of teachers using online counseling and email network

facility for all the districts. Commenting on this, CPI’s Upendra Tripathy

says, "All the above projects were developed and implemented by NIC,

Bangalore, with cooperation from the education department. Initially,

computerization work was limited to the CPI’s office, as the necessary

infrastructure was not available at the lower level. Now, as all the district

offices have the necessary infrastructure, computerization work is decentralized

and recruitment, posting and payroll are done at the district levels. District

NIC officers are involved in district level implementation and maintenance. All

the education offices in Bangalore and district head quarters are equipped with

Pentium systems with Windows-based operating systems and necessary peripherals

like printers, UPS and networking components.

With this, the email network

facility for all the districts has been made available. All the 190 block

educational officers are provided with computers during 1999-2000. Two

departmental computer training centers have been opened and a ‘class project’

to train 1,000 teachers in a year, has been organized.

Computerization of Treasuries

With an

investment of over Rs30 crore, Karnataka’s Department of Treasuries will be

computerized by November 2000. This process will comprise installations of

around 250 VSATs all over the state. Speaking on this, Vivek Kulkarni, IT

Secretary, Government of Karnataka, says, "Through this, we can provide

real-times updates of around 633 returns from all the districts to the

accountant general’s office."

Presently, the treasury is going

in for a second round of computerization, though it continues to use the earlier

computerization process dating back to 1994-95. Currently, all the district

treasuries use computers to compile the accounts. The state ‘Huzur’ treasury

has an online system that records transactions. The compilation is done on an

Oracle-based database and requires data entry.

This method has some of the

system deficiencies. The treasury submits actual expenditure to the accountant

general. All the drawings and disbursing officers also submit actual expenditure

via their controlling officers to the accountant general. These two figures have

to be reconciled. Typically, this should take place within 75 days after booking

the expenditure. Even though several procedures are stipulated, the treasury

system has a few drawbacks. Some unscrupulous elements have taken advantage of

these and embezzled the government. Hence a new computerization process has been

designed to eliminate these deficiencies.

The new process will capture

every single transaction accounting for over Rs20,000 crore at all 31-district

treasuries and 184 ‘taluk’ treasuries. The accounts will be updated

instantly. All the treasuries will have VSAT terminals and will be connected via

satellite. There will be a main database center at Bangalore and a disaster

recovery center at Dharwad. As a result, all the District and ‘taluk’

treasuries will capture every single transaction and compile accounts for both

the drawing and disbursing officers and accountant general. The signatures of

all drawing and disbursing officers and the countersigning officers will be

electronically stored.

Full-fledged budget control will

be introduced with the noting of quarterly and half-yearly budget allocation in

computers. The treasuries will provide statements of accounts required for

reconciliation by the drawing officers. Active cash and treasury management will

be undertaken. The treasury will provide the necessary MIS reports for

Karnataka.

The treasury handles transactions

of over Rs20,000 crore annually through 31districts and 184 ‘taluk’

treasuries, serves, 34,000 drawing and disbursing officers of both government

and ‘zilla panchayats’, over seven lakh employees of the Government of

Karnataka and grant-in-aid institutions. It also acts as a banker to 2,200

personal deposit accounts of various government authorities, 4,500 ‘zilla

panchayats’, ‘gram panchayats’, Municipal Corporation, ‘Muzrai’ and

other funds, sending information in 633 schedules of accounts and returns to

prescribed authorities including the accountant general of the state.

Vidyutnet for Karnataka Power

Transmission Corporation Ltd

India’s first VSAT-based

communication network–Vidyutnet–to support real-time data applications used

for power generation and distribution will be commissioned in KPTCL shortly. The

first phase involved setting up of the hub station at the load dispatch center,

Bangalore, and 40 remote sites covering the generating and 400-220 KV receiving

stations all over the state. The satellite data channel will replace the

existing data channels using power line carrier circuits. The data channel

supports Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems that KPTCL is using

for load dispatch operations. The network is also used for voice and fax

communication.