State Mission Mode Project e-district - Department of Electronics and ...

Study Report on Assessment of the Model e-districts
This phase included computerization and final movement towards an office relying more on IT than
on paper. It included following activities in particular:-
1. Alien recovery
2. Accounts and budgeting
3. Land Resource Management
4. Land acquisition
5. Planning for infrastructure development (Tourism, industry, etc.)
6. Database for scarcity relief, floods and other disasters
7. Disbursement of government relief in natural and manmade disasters
8. Government orders and amendments
9. Registration (i.e. Sub Registrar’s office)
10. Monitoring of various other government schemes
11. Publishing the Electoral Roll in the public domain
Responsibilities were distributed among various officers. These included the responsibility of co-
ordination, shifting, day-to-day monitoring of sub-projects, fund raising, etc. At the macro level, a
number of things had to be looked into. It had to be decided as to what part of the project was to
be completed first and what later, in what phases shifting to be done, how to distribute the
furniture, which issues to be computerized first, what kind of level jumping to be prescribed to
enable the disposal within the prescribed time limits, etc. After the macro level planning, micro
level planning continued for each activity with full participation of the employees. Development of
the software also involved full participation of the staff of Collectorate, Prant Offices and
Mamlatdar offices.
Various issues of the Citizen’s charter were distributed amongst various staff members as per their
choice and expertise. A standard format design, which encouraged transparency, was decided in
one of the brain storming sessions and on that basis all the formats were prepared. These were
then finalized in discussions during Shakha meetings and Revenue Officers’ meetings. There were
mixed feelings about expecting citizens to provide some basic information in each format. It was
felt that since the citizens are used to get their work done by putting in simple 5-6 line application,
they would not take these formats positively. But the final view which prevailed was that unless
citizens learn to take the responsibility for providing true and correct information upon
themselves, the earlier system could not be speeded up. There could be no other way to deliver
citizen services in the absence of any kind of validated and authenticated citizen databases.
In order to enhance the speed and accountability, level jumping and standardized internal query
formats were introduced at Mamlatdar level (which is the cutting edge for scrutiny of almost all
applications). The system’s reengineering process, which began in July, 2003 was completed for
phase-I and is still ongoing for next two phases. According to Ms. Karwal, former DM of Ahmedabad,
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