eGov-July-2011-[38-39]-MP Has Been The Pioneer In Developing and Conceptualising IT to Deliver e-Ser

in person

Anurag Jain

Principal Secretary – Department of Information Technology, Government of Madhya Pradesh

“MP has been the the pioneer in developing and conceptualising IT to deliver e-Services”

W Madhya Pradesh is one of the proactive states as far as IT adoption and e-Governance is concerned. In a freewheeling interview with Shally Makin of eGov Bureau he reveals the nuances of adopting IT for governance and what the future holds.

38

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2011

hat is your vision and strategy for enabling e-Government in your state?

There are various projects, which we perceive will be fruitful in the near future. So far our eDistrict pilot project has benefitted people to a large extent in the trial period. Looking on to the success of the project we will be implementing eDistrict in a year to further 45 districts of the state. eDistrict has been envisaged by Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) as automation of workflow and internal processes of district administration with the possibility of seamless integration of various departments for providing services to the citizens. The Government of India (GoI) intends to provide a facility for people to put applications online with a ‘Front Desk Interface’ of the grievances and proposals. To enable eGov, MP has been the pioneer in developing and conceptualising IT to deliver services. The recently implemented Madhya Pradesh Public Services Guarantee Act, 2010 is first-of-its-kind in India. No other state has come up with such a ground breaking legislation to facilitate public services to common man.

At present National Informatics Centre (NIC) is slowly being engaged by the Department of Information Technology to provide network backbone and e-Governance support to our Government centrally. It offers a wide range of ICT services including Nationwide Communication Network for decentralised planning, improvement in government services and wider transparency of national and local Governments.

Can you elaborate on ICT projects being implemented across departments in the state?

Majorly, Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT) takes care of the ICT projects. The state is finalising the tenders and the process of approval for various projects. The state data centers, NIC data center and MP online data centers are gradually being established to facilitate the process. The whole of MP is being comput-

in person

erised gradually with a constant process of upgradation centrally. The e-District project has been enabled by creating an efficient IT enabled delivery mechanism for citizen services/information being delivered from District Administration and its subordinate offices. The electronic security and control of confidential data has made public cases/appeals/grievances dissemination of information processes faster.

Transport department has developed an online payment gateway in collaboration with State Bank of India. MAP_IT has initiated project of e-Tendering to be implemented across all the Government Departments and Statue PSUs in MP. The contract has been awarded to a consortium of Wipro Ltd and NexTenders (I) Pvt Ltd (Wipro-NT).

Has the state been able to set up MAP_IT as per promised in the state policy? How has it contributed in the development?

MAP_IT has been set up and has contributed a lot to the state infrastructure by streamlining the processes. The whole state is networked and involves the contribution of two centers. State e-Governance Mission Team (SeMT) is providing support to the State Apex Committee and PeMT, as an advisory body for providing an overall direction, standardization and consistency for undertaking the ground work.

Do you have policy on standardisation and plans for having legislation on cyber security and information security?

Yes, we do have certain policies to follow and maintain cyber security. GIS is very well implemented in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Content Service Provider has been very well identified. The IT department is working on Unicode policies to be followed strictly in all districts. All the websites of the state will be e-Initiative

in Unicode Fonts, common look and feel and with content relevant to the user group the site is intended for. MP online is providing services

exam forms available online for PSC, and other professional entrances exams. These websites are doing good business. e-District project has

“MAP_IT has been set up and has contributed a lot to the state infrastructure by streamlining the processes”

to urban people with special focus on providing facility to the rural users with a project implemented by the Cyber Security Division. MP is the first state to implement Cyber Treasury with increasing literacy; citizens demand better services from the government, in the shortest time, at the place of their choice and in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner.

Your website states ‘The government has also initiated changes in labour laws to make them more favourable to IT industries.’

Please Comment.

IT policy states investment promotion and concessions for labour. The state also leverages exemption from factories act, maternity act, contract labour act, payment of wages act, minimum wages act, ESI act. Ladies are allowed to work in shifts and thus various industries attract labour with such flexibility in their acts.

CSCs have been struggling for viability and sustainability in all states in the country. How are you proposing to fix these issues in your state?

Fortunately, the status of MP is marginally better as the state provides almost 130 services.

In the department of education we have all

Description

also made few services viable to the citizens and expanded their work towards CSC. The state has provided best to improve financial health and attracted good business. We have also realised that the use of such websites is higher in urban areas, therefore initiated in the rural areas too in order to help easy processing. The registration fees is renewed as per the business made by the user. ICT has contributed in the financial inclusion of the state. SBI is in the process of becoming a correspondent to NREGA. This has brought a good income to PSUs. As of now, there have been 600 new business correspondents in the state. This has further helped in improving the financial state of the region and given a boost to the economy.

Please shed some light on the state’s IT policy.

MP government had announced its IT policy in the year 1999. The policy was revitalised in 2006 and new IT policy was launched with fresh willingness to bring e-governance and IT investments in the state. State’s IT policy emphasises induction of IT in all walks of government functioning with focus on masses and aims to leverage IT for transparency and better governance. It is one of the leading states in terms of adoption of IT and works aggressively towards passing on the benefits to citizens.

Update

Commercial Tax Department Instant information access of the dealers and also offers major processes of the department ‘on-line’

Internal functions such as payroll, pension related activities, personal information processing made online

Treasury and Accounts

Integrated Treasuries Computerisation Project (ITCP) through 53 district treasuries, 159 sub-treasuries, serving 8000 officers

Project won Golden Icon Award for the exemplary Horizontal Transfer of ICT based Best Practice for the year 2007

Land Records

Textual data of land records are 100 percent converted into electronic form

35 million Khasra (Plot/Survey) numbers comprising of 11 million Landowners have been computerised

Transport Department

Computerising transport department’s activities by issuing Smart Cards for Driving Licenses and Vehicle Registration

All activities of RTO offices are computerised. Information of vehicles registered in MP available via SMS & Internet

e-Tendering

The State Government decided to implement an Electronic Tendering solution for use by all its departments/PSUs

Madhya Pradesh Agency for Information Technology (MAP_IT) to selects suitable service providers for the implementation

July 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

39