Informatics-April 2008

Guest Column
Informatics, April 2008
According to section 4 of the Act, (1) Every public
authority shall-
* Maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in
a manner and the form which facilitates the right to
information under this act and ensure that all records that
are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable
time and subject to availability of resources, computerized
and connected through a network all over the country on
different systems so that access to such records is
facilitated.
* It shall be a constant endeavour of every public
authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements
of clause (b) of subsection (1) to provide as much
information suo-moto to the public at regular intervals
through various means of communications, including
internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use
of this Act to obtain information.
* For the purpose of sub-section (1), every information
shall be disseminated widely and in such form and manner
which is easily available to public.
* All materials shall be disseminated taking into
consideration the cost effectiveness, local language and the
most effective method of communication in that local area
and the information should be easily accessible, to the
extent possible in electronic format with the Central Public
Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as
the case may be, available free or at such cost of the medium
or the print cost price as may be prescribed.
Affinity between e-Government and RTI
The definition of e-Government and various enabling
provisions of The Right of Information Act clearly
demonstrates that if the various provisions of the
enactment is given effect to in letter and spirit, e-
Government and Governance is not at all a distant dream.
Establishing the regime of Right to Information Act in the
entirety shall pave the way for establishing the framework
and structure of e-Government and Governance. Thus it is
amply clear that the enactment can act as basic rock solid
foundation on which the structure of e-Government and
Governance can successfully rest, for the benefit of public
at large. Section 4(1)(b) mandates the disclosure of
various information through various methods so that the
information is available for the public in public domain.
This duty has been cast on every public authority. Since e-
Govt. and Governance is all about “the use of information
technology to free movement of information to overcome
the physical bounds of traditional paper and physical
bound systems” to “the use of technology to enhance the
access to and delivery of government services to benefit
citizens, business partners and employees”, it is as clear as
noon day that with the enactment in place, e-Govt. and
Governance have become a reality.
Some of NIC's initiatives in establishing the regime of
e-Gov. and RTI in Madhya Pradesh
Web Services
The Web Services Center of NIC MP primarily maintains
nearly 400 web-sites on MP Portal to facilitate greater
access to all interested netizens and also to promote
G2G/G2B/G2C/G2E interaction. The portal
http://mp.gov.in is the cyber gateway to MP and has added
to improved transparency through its interactive/
informative contents apart from providing various citizen
services.
Land Record Information System
Bhuabhilekh:- Bhu-Abhilekh is an application software
product designed by NIC for the office of Commissioner,
Land Records and Settlement, GoMP, to deliver excellent
grass root governance within the domain of Land
Management. Records of 35 million khasara (Plot/survey)
numbers comprising of 10.5 million land owners have
been computerized.
BSMP-Basic Services / Amenities Monitoring
Programme
Even though the Government spends most of the annual
budget in providing/ maintaining the Basic Services and
Amenities to its citizens, it was noticed that the public, in
general, remain dissatisfied with the administration since
large number of the services/ amenities remain affected
many a times. Hence a proactive mechanism is evolved to
capture the relevant information from all the villages of
the State from an independent agency directly and to
monitor it through the Basic Services/Amenities
Programme to provide effective delivery of Basic
Services/Amenities. Govt. is contemplating on making
the data available in Public Domain.
Web based Rural Soft
In order to monitor the physical and financial progress of
poverty alleviation schemes of both state and central
government, NIC MP State Center, Bhopal has designed
and developed a computerized web-based system “Rural
Soft” package for the Department of Rural Development,
GoMP. The schemes included in the software are IAY,
SGSY, SGRY, NFFWP, MDM, RSVY, MPREGS,
MMAY, PMGY (Awas), Watershed Management etc. It
has basically G2G and G2C interface. Samadhan Online
and Samdhan Kendras have also G2C interface and also
proving to be very effective in Public Grievance
Redressal.
Above are the few examples which elucidate that in MP,
Govt. with the help of NIC has established the regime of
Right to Information and thus marching ahead in
making e-Government and Governance a reality.
26