E-governance in India took baby steps in the late 1990s.
Among the foremost such experiments were the Plan Monitoring System of Kerala
Government and the Local government experiments in Karnataka, both of which I
was part of, and in the latter case, as the sponsor and initiator.
The PMS of Kerala Government was an ambitious project to
connect 1100 Grama Panchayaths through Block Development offices to the State
Planning Board for the purposes of Planning, Approval, Disbursement and
Physical and Financial Tracking, a humongous task in 1998, made easy by the
support of Microsoft in communist Kerala! The concept was ahead of its time,
well-meaning and would definitely democratize planning in the true spirit of
Panchayath Raj system. The only limitation was that technology options in 1998
were limited and political patronage was fickle.
The Karnataka experiment started with the computerization of
the Bellandur Grama Panchayath in 1999. We ended implementing an entire “ERP”
for Grama Panchayaths. The main modules were Accounts, Inventory, General
Administration, Staff, Land Records, Projects (Planning and Tracking), GP
meetings minutes and Petitions. We further went on to computerize Udupi Taluka
Panchayath and a surrounding Grama Panchyaths under the then MLA, UR Sabhapathi
between 2000 and 2002. We had eventually computerized over 10 Grama Panchyaths.
The learnings from the above experiences were intense and
thought provoking. We had out challenges too, chief among them being Political
will at the government end and adequate bank balance to sustain the long gestation
period, at our end. We subsequently had to move to other geographies as we did
not get adequate support from local dispensations and ended up implementing more
E-governance projects outside India.
Fast forward to 2014, we need to align E-governance at the local
administration level to support contemporary environment and expectations of
its consumers, the citizenry, or now the famous Mango Man. Let’s discuss the
features of urban and Rural Local Body governance solution for the time being.
General Administration is the primary operations
module of the local administrations and covers Office administration setup,
configurable Accounting heads. Payroll computation and office ledger are other
important components that will cover basic administration aspects. Office
ledger will cover petty cash and operational expenses. Payroll computation will
need to be computed as per local body rules applicable, along with statutory
aspects.
Inventory and stores, maintenance works and expenses are used
to track and execute Minor Works and projects in the local body. It needs to be
integrated with an inventory and stores modules to track inward and outward
stock of spares and consumables. Vendor management and Procurement are two
other components for the same. Procurement can be integrated with an Online
Tendering system to ensure transparency.
Accounts Payable/Receivables modules is required to track
inward and outward movement of funds. It should have configurable accounting
heads and be able to produce Trial balance, Schedules and Balance Sheets.
Transactions may be secured to protect against tampering.
Land Records is the most important modules in local
governments as it is the primary source of revenue with the local body being the
custodian of land records, tax records and alienation. Reconciliation, mutation
and alienation of Land Records are important components that have weighted
legal bearing and hence should be robustly designed with adequate checks and
balances. Citizens should have the option of verifying records as well as
paying their taxes online or through mobile. Tax Assessment and Verification
may thus be moved online using a rule-based engine to deliver uniform tax
computation. Overtime, this will help reduce leakages and thereby bring down rates
while increasing yield. Mapping integration is mandatory for Land Records.
Additional Tax Heads, computation and records are needed to
address ever changing Tax regimes in force. Provision for Tax amendments and
introduction of new tax heads and computation needs to be included. Tax Heads
may include Taxes for amenities, surcharges and secondary taxes. In some cases,
central and state taxes may be applicable. Secure Online/Mobile Tax payment
will be a de facto.
Citizen Services will need to involve citizen records and
related data to help identify and deliver beneficiary schemes while taking
census in real-time. Programs such as Aadhar and MGNREGA should employ the same
information infrastructure to provide Aadhar, Voter ID and PAN cards as much as
they may be used to determine genuine beneficiaries under Central and State
beneficiary schemes to delivery development programs. The same system can be
updated to help track the effectiveness of the schemes and the benefits to the
allottees. Over time, a trackable and verifiable system of delivery to
beneficiaries will help stabilize the system while eliminating leakages and
reducing administrative costs.
Local bodies have elected representatives, office bearers
and employees, among other public servants, a directory of which is to be
included. Public servants may interact with citizens for services, feedback and
petitions. All public servants and
government employees will have a public profile with their roles and
responsibilities, tenure, past activities and records, along with all the
relevant information as per statutory and transparency acts for public
servants. Legal and statutory issues such as declaration of assets, legal
cases, may be published to the same, thus placing relevant records in the
public domain. An option for moderated publishing may be provided to citizenry
to provide feedback and information on public servants.
Local bodies employ Gram Sabhas, Governing Council meetings
and other public interfaces to publish announcements and circulars, collect
petitions and surveys, and respond to Queries. These proceedings can be minuted
or recorded and presented publicly to help disseminate information. Citizens
should be able to make petitions to raise their demands and get response. These
petitions need to be aggregated and considered as inputs to determine
development work locally and their beneficiaries when budgeting and planning,
thus greatly increasing transparency and acceptance.
Citizens may create their personal profiles on the portal to
share their relevant data such as demographic data, land records, Tax
Assessment, Tax Payment and Records, Petitions and Petition tracking,
Circulars, notifications and announcements, Surveys and Feedbacks, RTI
Requisitions, among others. Payment gateway integration will greatly help users
to pay their due Taxes in a timely and convenient manner.
Development Projects planned based on popular demand through
a public petitioning system will ensure responsive governance. It also ensures
that citizenry’s demands are met and elected representatives are responsive to
the needs of their constituents. Development projects can be planned and published
on the same system such that it is transparent and traceable to petitions, thus
justifying expenditure of public funds.
Financial and Physical targets can be published and help in effective
tracking. In cases where public works need to be contracted, an online
tendering and bidding system incorporated. In case of projects that require
Grants, state and central governmental sanctions, inter-departmental approvals
and external funding, the online system, with role-based access, can provide
secure access to respective bodies to interact with the system for planning,
approval and tracking to ensure that funds are reaching the intended purpose as
per plan and schedule. Local bodies and vendors use the same system to report
project status and physical progress. Financing bodies can track progress
online against milestones and release funds accordingly to ensure timely and
transparent execution of projects. Public may access projects and corroborate
the progress, as well.
Further, the system should be flexible enough to cater to
the needs of Urban and Rural local bodies and integrate with their respective
departments for approval and tracking. Other departments, such as Social
welfare, PWD, Women and Child Welfare, Irrigation, Education, Agriculture,
Revenue and Finance, among others, can log into the same system and address
issues pertaining to their departments in a timely and transparent system.
Besides internet access, the system should also provide a
mobile interface in local language, either through a mobile application or SMS,
thus lowering the entry barriers for citizens to interact with the governing
bodies. SMS Alerts can be integrated to ensure citizens can get instant
configurable alerts. These will especially come handy when faced with Natural
disasters and calamities to ensure speedy dissemination of information and
alerts.
In summary, a comprehensive local body governance system
going online will greatly democratize India and ensure timely, transparent
delivery of governance while reducing the Cost of Administration, thus
effectively raising the “Return on investment” for the common man!
About Subramanya R Jois
Subramanya
has been developing Internet based products for over 18 years in his previous
roles in Compusol and 360Buzz, ranging across E-governance, Enterprise and Web
2.0. His pioneering work in E-governance in Karnataka gave the first fully
computerized Grama Panchayath in 1999 which was followed up with a string of
implementations. He further led E-governance implementation in Local Bodies in
India, Sri Lanka and Middle East.
For the
last few years, he has been developing user-centric Internet of Things to
enhance the digital lifestyle in the years to come! He has published papers on
various subjects and implemented Quality Systems. As a member of IEEE, Subbu
has actively contributed towards development of various Software Engineering
standards as well. He has actively contributed to furthering delivery of
education for the underprivileged through an international award e-Learning
initiative called FTE+ for Round Table India. He is currently architecting an
Omnichannel User Centric Retail Platform for CloudTags, among other
initiatives.
