Moving Another Notch Closer to the Blue Sky

To further its initiative towards establishing a completely e-governed state
and providing better services to citizens online, the state government of Andhra
Pradesh is embarking upon integrating the functions of major departments right
from the mandal to the state level. The government has initiated steps for
implementing a new online transaction processing (OLTP) system which will help
integrate the functioning of the various departments at the mandal, district and
state levels and create synergy while sharing the inter-departmental data for
effective functioning of the government as a whole.

The state government has recently permitted the implementation of OLTP
systems in two mandals–Shadnagar mandal of Mehmoobnagar district and Bhongir
mandal of Nalgonda district on a pilot basis. The scope of the project, which is
estimated to cost around Rs 2 crore and being implemented by a consortium of
private information technology firms, includes vertical and horizontal
integration of 10 identified departments at the mandal, district and state
levels. Besides, it connects more than 10 villages in each mandal with the help
of electronic kiosks.

The OLTP system will help integrate the functioning of various mandal, district and state level departments

"We are implementing state-wide IT projects like the multi-purpose
household survey and computer-aided administration of the registration
department which had a huge amount of data bases on various issues including the
land records of individuals in the state. Towards this end, it was felt that the
OLTP system would bring in the needed respite to the issue of these databases,
hence the implementation of the pilot project," says Andhra Pradesh IT
secretary J Satyanarayana.

In its bid to ensure smooth and proper implementation of the pilot project,
the government has constituted steering committees at the state, district and
mandal levels, which would be made responsible for proper coordination among the
different departments involved. The committees will conduct periodic reviews and
remove bottlenecks in the projects, besides providing administrative and
technical support to the agencies implementing the project.

The state level committee will be headed by the secretary of the information
technology department and will comprise senior officials of different
departments including those from the Panchayat Raj, land administration, police,
electricity (power), and commercial taxes as members. The district level
committee will be headed by the collector and consists of, among others the
superintendent of police and the chief executive officer of the Zila Parishad as
members. The mandal committee, on the other hand, will be headed by the
divisional officer (revenues).

"We will evaluate the results of the pilot projects very closely up to
the month of July, and based on their success, we are expecting to extend
similar efforts to other parts of the state as well. We are projecting OLTP as a
counterpart to the already existing e-seva services at the mandal level wherein
several services would be offered to the masses via the Internet," he
explained.

The Andhra Pradesh government has, over recent years, undertaken a number of
projects involving e-governance to bridge the gap between the government and the
citizens of the state. Let’s hope that these new initiatives fulfil the dream
of becoming a completely e-governed state!

Zia Askari in Hyderabad