The Hindu : E-Governance: Corporation awaiting Govt. nod

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 04, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

E-Governance: Corporation awaiting Govt. nod

By T. Nandakumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 3. The City Corporation is awaiting the report of a Government audit to secure final clearance for its ambitious e-governance project aimed at streamlining administration and improving citizen service facilities.

The Government insisted on a performance audit of the computerisation programme following allegations of irregularities in the purchase of hardware. But LDF leaders in the Corporation feel that the audit was part of a political conspiracy aimed at impeding the programme.

Scheduled to be launched in March, the project ran into a major hurdle after the District Planning Committee called for a review citing the failure to secure Government approval. The UDF members in the DPC alleged irregularities in the purchase of hardware. They demanded an inquiry into the decision to award the contract to a private company ignoring a better offer from the public sector Keltron.

In a bid to sort out the issue, the Mayor met the Local Administration Minister and department officials who promised to issue a government order clearing the project. LDF leaders said they were taken aback when the government issued a conditional clearance insisting on a performance audit. Corporation sources said the three-day audit had detected no irregularity in the contract.

``It is for no fault of ours that the project has been delayed by over two months. The setbacks were unfortunate and came at a time when most of the works were completed and the equipment was ready for installation,'' said the Mayor, J.Chandra. She, however, expressed the hope that the project would get the green signal from the Government in a few days.

Meanwhile, alarmed over the setback to the project, the hardware suppliers are learnt to have demanded advance payment for the equipment. The Corporation is reported to have turned down the demand. Efforts are on to convince the suppliers that the problems are being ironed out.

The Rs.1.3 crore-project which is to be implemented by the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) proposes a network linking the Corporation headquarters with the zonal offices situated in the new wards annexed to the city from five suburban panchayats. Two major city hospitals which register the largest number of births are also likely to be included in the network in the first phase.

The Corporation headquarters at Palayam is geared up for the launch of the e-governance programme. A front office with a computerised counter has been set up on the ground floor near the main entrance to the office. The nodes have been installed and the servers are getting ready.

Designed on the lines of the Friends Janasevana Kendram, the project includes an interactive help desk and an electronic token dispensing system for queue management. The design of the lobby was taken up by the Information Kerala Mission (IKM), which also provides the software for the project.

The data entry of back records for the last five years has been completed up to January 2003 with the help of Kudumbasree units. Corporation employees are being trained in batches to familiarise them with the computerised system. The issue of birth and death certificates is the first application to be taken up at the computerised counter.

The IKM is working on a plan to set up computerised facilities for birth registration at the SAT hospital at the Medical College and the Women and Children hospital at Thycaud. Preliminary discussions were held with the superintendents of the two institutions.

Under the proposal, the Corporation will foot the expense to install computers for day- to- day registration of births at the two hospitals. The data will be transferred to floppies and taken to the Corporation headquarters where it will be added to the general database the very next day. The system is aimed at facilitating speedier issue of birth certificates.

The computers to be installed at the hospitals will be housed in cabins attached to the office of the superintendent. The Corporation will post two Junior Health Inspectors at each of the hospitals to verify the data entry and ensure accuracy of records.

The second phase of the e-governance project proposes the networking of most of the hospitals in the city to the Corporation office for instantaneous data transfer. The local body is also thinking about bringing the death registration at the Medical College hospital within the ambit of the programme.

The initial phase of the project involves computerisation of the Health and Revenue departments. The Town Planning, Engineering and General sections will be computerised later.

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