Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007 ePaper |
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Tamil Nadu
CATCHING UP WITH TIMES: Chennai Metrowater staff checking the online transactions at the head office in Chennai on Monday CHENNAI: A pothole on your street? Is your deadline for payment of water tax nearing? Want to be included in the voters’ list? Help, these days, is just a click away. Whether it is voicing a grievance or carrying out one’s duties as a responsible citizen, all is possible from the comfort of one’s home, without having to brave the maddening traffic or long queues. With the State Government and its departments having made several of its services available online, more and more residents seem to prefer this option. Despite irregular updates in some cases and a few technical snags, the websites have proved useful to many. The Chennai Corporation’s website www.chennaicorporation.com, for example, provides information on its various departments and services. However, a considerable amount of information is about a year-and-a-half-old and needs to be updated. The civic agency’s services related to property tax and birth and death registration records have been computerised. In 2005, the Corporation launched an online payment facility for property tax but the service is defunct now. The link for the facility still remains on its website but when clicked on, it opens up the property tax status records. Officials said more patronage would ensure removal of such hitches. Though only a small percentage of the nearly six lakh consumers in the city use the online services of the Chennai Metrowater at www.chennaimetrowater.com, the system is steadily gaining patronage. The online complaint registration cell launched earlier this year had about 12,000 persons posting their complaints online during September. About 13,000 registered complaints in October, a senior official said. Consumers may also check the status of their applications for water or sewer connection and tax arrears. E-tendering facility for bidders would be introduced soon, he added. The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has computerised the list of consumers and bill payments for Chennai. Contact numbers for fuse-off call centres are listed on the website. A Tamil version of the site is also available. However, the TNEB is yet to launch an online payment system. Consumers can only view their bill status online at www.tneb.in. Chepauk resident A.Anusha is impressed with the online electoral rolls enrolment facility. “I registered last year in a matter of minutes. It was quite simple and user-friendly,” she said. The service is now available on www.tn.gov.in for the next summary revision of rolls. Voters get an e-mail acknowledging their inclusion in the list, after their residential addresses have been verified. Local bodiesThe e-governance system of local bodies is yet to gain impetus. Though their websites provide details about the services and schemes, many are yet to update details about council resolutions, tax dues and collection. A senior municipal administration official said that the list of the councillors of local bodies across the State, which was recently released, was available at www.municipality.tn.gov.in/municipality’s name. All the 157 urban local bodies have their own websites. Residents may now download forms for services such as building plan approval and property tax name transfer from the website. The services were important to qualify for sanction of funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which emphasised the need for transparency in administration, he added. Booking tickets onlineOnline ticket booking services have good patronage from many who travel by rail, road and air. Whether it is railway, bus or flight tickets, passengers find the option convenient, particularly while comparing rates and timings. M.Balakrishnan, a resident of T.Nagar, who travels frequently, finds the e-ticketing facility of the Railways useful. “Since most of my trips are sudden and short, I book my ticket only a couple of days in advance,” he said. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited’s website www.irctc.co.in gives details of all possible trains to a particular destination, he added. CMDAThe Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) initiated computerisation of the planning permission application process last month. In the first phase, the process has been re-worked for special buildings, Information Minister and CMDA chairman Parithi Ilamvazhithi had said after launching the computerised system. Applications for special buildings received electronically generated acknowledgement afterwards. Verification of documents and inspection follows. The applicant would then be informed of the decision through e-mail. The process of applying for planning permission would soon become entirely interactive, officials said. The National Informatics Centre had given an estimate of Rs.2.4 crore for implementation of the project in three phases. While the response to such services ranges from lukewarm to encouraging, the government departments and agencies are confident of an increase in the number of online users in the days to come. Driving their confidence is the increasing penetration of personal computers and the growing affordability of internet connections. It is against this backdrop that experts underscore the need for measures to make online transactions secure. (With inputs from K. Lakshmi, Kannal Achuthan, Ananth Krishnan, J. Malarvizhi and Meera Srinivasan.)
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