Unified portal on the cards, says CM

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, FEB. 17. The Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, on Saturday unveiled the State Government's ambitious plan to have a unified portal at the State level integrating all services and link it to the Internet, to enable people to access these services at home.

Replying to Mr. G. Nagesh (TDP) and others during question time in the Assembly, Mr. Naidu said the concept of having a unified portal and extending services through the Internet was at present confined only to Singapore and the U.S. Such a service meant avoiding a visit to the office and meeting the official.

Once the project is commissioned, MLAs too could access these services from home. At present, there was a linkage only between the computerised department and the office where the service is offered like the TWINS project in the city. The TWINS project now at Banjara Hills will be extended to 18 centres in city having 150 counters, in the next few months, six of them by March-end. Similar facilities would be extended to important towns and cities during the next financial year.

In all, there were 57,659 transactions at the TWINS project at Banjara hills till January 31 and the total revenue collection was Rs. 6.83 crores. The 18 centres project had been given to CMS and Ram Info on Build Own and Transfer basis and the number of transactions expected was 3.6 lakh. The average cost per transaction which was at present Rs. 4.75 was likely to come down to less than Rs. 4, once these were commissioned. He said computerised service also meant greater accountability, no harassment and no corruption.

Referring to the concern expressed by some members, he said computerisation would not lead to any retrenchment. No existing employee would be removed. At best there might be redeployment. For instance, if the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad was computerised, the staff would be sent to the field, to check payment of property tax.

He said MLAs will be imparted training in computers. Nineteen officers holding key posts have been sent for training at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. At the lower level, 5000 employees had been trained so far. Computers had been set up in a number of mandals, but there was need for changing the mindset. Some were still not keen on using the computers.

Replying to Mr. Suresh Reddy (Congress)'s query, he said Mr. Madhusudhana Rao, an IAS officer had been appointed as project director, to look into feedback and carry on further improvements to the systems. The Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation had begun collecting property tax through a network of banks. The UTI Bank had come up with a project of collecting commercial tax.

Conceding Mr. N. Indrasena Reddy's demand, Mr. Naidu said a demonstration of all computerised services now being offered by the Government and the software developed so far, would be organised for the MLAs.

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