Mahiti Ghar: Single Window Interface in Goa

In a bid to promote Goa’s e-governance initiative, the state government and
the Centre have signed a definitive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently.
Chief secretary to the government of Goa DS Negi and Government of India
Ministry of Communications and Information joint secretary to the department of
IT R Chandrashekar signed the MoU in Panaji.

According to the MoU, the Central government will help the state government
in setting up of the single window interface–Mahiti Ghar–for delivering
various government services like online learning driving license and Form I
& XIV to citizens.

The state government is in the process of adding more services to this list.
Also identified was the development, upgradation or assessment of end-to-end
software solutions for various departments of government of Goa such as revenue,
municipal and panchayat offices, transport, land records, registration,
electricity, public works department, sales tax/ VAT, excise, police, tourism,
health (including telemedicine), civil supplies and employment.

The Centre has assured the state government to provide technical assistance,
to address the technology, financing, structuring of specific business models,
process re-engineering and organizational issues that need to be dealt with in
the course of implementation of the identified projects. The technical
assistance would include decision-making support and specific rollout plans for
identified projects that government of Goa may require. The Central government
has also assured seed funding through National Institute of Smart Government (NISG)
to cover the cost of the technical assistance.

There is also a mention of assistance for capacity building with the state
government to deal with issues relating to e-governance and funding for limited
roll-out in order to demonstrate viability, feasibility and prepared bid
documentation for statewide roll-out through Public Private Participation. The
MoU also talks about leveraging knowledge, experience and experience available
over the entire country and in particular in organizations like NIC.

The Central government is creating specific institutional mechanisms to
assist state governments with technical expertise and seed capital assistance
for select projects. The state government is seeking to implement the
e-governance projects on a self-financing basis.

Niraj Naik / CyberMedia News in Goa