Following the Path of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, now Orissa is on its way to digital Governance. The Orissa government is gearing up to take IT to villages by initiating various programs of e-governance. Thanks to the Pro-active policy of the e-governance of the tech friendly Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Pattnaik.

The Orissa, a eastern state of India, Government has tied up with the National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG), Hyderabad, to prepare an e-governance road map for the State. The Government is pursuing several initiatives aimed at taking e-governance to the masses. It has commissioned V-SAT based 128 kbps network facility connecting all the Blocks, District Rural Development Agency (DRDAs) with the State and expected to connect with the Gram Panchayat by December 2005. 328 I.T qualified technical personnel have already been in position since April 2004 to provide on site support for application software and training.

A number of popular schemes such as e-seva will be implemented under the e-governance policy. The e-seva model of Andhra Pradesh is expected to be implemented in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack in the 2005-2006 fiscal year . The government also plans to set up 3,000 IT touch screen kiosks at block headquarters during the period 2004-2007 for transparency, a paperless citizen-centric information-processing centre in the state in the next four years. The govt has allocated 75 lakh Rupees for establishing kiosks in the budget (2005-06).

The Orissa government hopes to achieve better utilization of funds, greater financial transparency, accountability and better management of social welfare schemes by the Panchayati Raj institutes through the digital governance with the help of integrated IT infrastructure. For this government has chosen Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server to build integrated infrastructure with the help of end-user Panchayat Accounting and Monitoring information System (PAMIS) Software (Financial Accounting) for all blocks and District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA) developed by Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. Similarly Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) is helping government in implementing Payroll application software.

This is one of the important steps towards a citizen-centric integrated IT infrastructure. The three-tiered web-based infrastructure by oracle will help the people of Orissa to interface better with the Government, Departments employees at the Block and Grama Panchayat level.

Experts feels that the Oracle could bring all its global and Indian experience to help the government in building a three-tier, web-based IT infrastructure. Oracles E-Government projects will help in raising revenue, work-flow / operation efficiency enhancement and citizen services delivery by the government departments like public health organisations, education and research organisations, public utilities like electricity generation & distribution and water supply departments, municipal corporations and panchayats.

The government has launched a website in order to ensure public access to useful Government information. The public can access the site on http://orissa.gov.in or http://www.orissagov.nic.in. Information on Government Schemes, Projects, Policies and Procedures are contained in this portal. Various Tenders, Quotation Calls, Advertisements are being placed in it for public access. Many other important websites have also been linked to find information from a single site.

A number of public services have been planned to be provided from this portal. Various citizen services such as payment of utility bills like water, sewerage, telephone bills, holding tax, payments of examination fees for schools and colleges, filing IT returns, registration of birth & death and also getting related certificates, getting various permits and license, downloading of forms, and government orders etc. will be made available through this portal. These services are proposed to be fee-based and available to the public from the information kiosks at an affordable cost.

The Panchayati Raj Department runs two websites one is Implementation of Panchayati Raj Institution Accounts Monitoring Software (PARIAMSOFT) which contains all rules and circulars of the department, funds flow monitoring and provided citizen centric information that one can access just with a click on mouse. The other website called RURAL SOFT has also hosted details of various anti-poverty and rural development schemes like Sampoorn Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), and Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) in a software package naming projects and location details that are implemented by the Panchayat Department. Besides it also has assets monitoring of Panchayati Raj institutions including gram panchayat monitoring, meetings of gram sabha, and palli sabha. Online transformation of data in 6234 GPs, 314 Blocks and 30 DRDAs on monthly basis linked to Panchayat Raj Departments website.

Besides, the department has also introduced public grievance hearing and disposal system online and is developing websites for all 30 district rural development agencies, 314 blocks and 6,234 gram panchayats on e-NRICH package of National Informatics Center (NIC).

Computerization of land records

Like The Bhoomi project of on-line delivery of land records in Karnataka, land records are being computerized in Orissa through the Directorate of Land Records & Surveys, Board of Revenue, Cuttack that includes Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) in the block and Tahasil level. So far, the work has been completed in only 80 of the states 171 tahasils. The govt also planning to digitize cadastral maps in all 30 district of Orissa with the global positioning system. This will help to record the latitude, longitude and elevation of a land on real time basis. The state government has, on a pilot basis, carried out map digitisation in six tahasils including Rayagada, Koraput, Narasinghpur, Kendrapada and Salepur. Now a farmer can check the status of a mutation application on a Touch Screen provided on a pilot basis in the computerized kiosks.

E-Government and Socio-economic development in Orissa

The digital governance could increase opportunities for economic development in one of the most unfortunate landscapes of the country, Koraput Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK) and could play a critical role in rapid Socio economic change, productive capacity improvements of the people in this region. This could also address some of the key barriers and challenges for entering the global economy and for future growth potential of Orissa. It can transform old challenges and create unprecedented possibilities for sustainable economic development in the state.

The dark days could well be in behind when the most unfortunate part of India's population living in villages and semi-urban was just unreachable and uninformed on every new development-taking place, with transparency of services through internet. For every petty work they goes to go to the district headquarters resulting in long queues, travel expenses and corrupt middlemen, which used to take away further a reasonable proportion of their earnings. This could be attributed to the lack of information, as uninformed and illiterate villagers just believed in what they are told by the agents roaming outside the government offices. For hundreds of years, common people in the this unfortunate KBK districts of the Orissa are in a battle against the invincible drought, poverty, and corrupt middlemen. The new information and communication technology developments in the state could change the way government offices used to work and also the life style of the villagers and other citizens.

The new ICT revolution has connected the villages to networks that are accessible from any specified location and need not move every now and then to district headquarters for getting things done. Applications for household or individual benefit schemes can be filed online and can get the BPL list and other beneficiary lists online from any kiosk.

Improve the Quality of Decision Making

E-Government offers opportunities for the people to directly participate in political, government discussions, citizens can contribute their own ideas, and share their knowledge and information. This will in turn lead to building trust in government and improving the relationships between the government and the people in decision-making process. The availability of a diversity of publications regarding the activities of socio-economic and legislative aspects increases the transparency in the public administration. The strengthening relationship between government and citizens could help the government to tap wider sources of information, perspectives and solutions to meet the challenges of policy making in a poor state like Orissa, where the conditions of complexity in decision making prevails every where.

Increase in The Efficiency of Government

Employees in the Orissa secretariat can no longer remain computer-illiterate as information technology giant Microsoft joins hands with the state-owned Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) to develop the Oriya version of MS Office, the path is being paved to make state employees learn the basics of computer applications. The Oriya version, developed under Project Bhasha, is expected to be out by March of this year. The Oriya version of MS Office would help popularise information and communication technology (ICT) in the state.

It could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of internal functions and processes of government by interrelating different departments and agencies in the secretariat. The information now can flow much faster and more easily among different governmental departments which could reduce processing time, paperwork bottlenecks, and eliminate long bureaucratic and inefficient approval procedures. It will also reduce labour cost and information handling costs. The appropriate use of shared data and information by all governmental agencies and departments offers the possibility to make quick governmental decisions to serve the people in much better way.

Challenges For A Successful Implementation Of E-Government Initiatives

Collaboration and cooperation at local, regional and national levels, as well as between public and private organizations, are important elements in the e-Government development process.

Publication of budgetary allocations and expenditure on the web, systems for tracking status of applications for a variety of licenses, sharing citizens charter and performance data on the web are all known to increase accountability. However, increasing availability of information on the Internet does not mean that citizens will automatically use the information to demand greater accountability. The proportion of people who are willing to be constantly engaged in the process of governance is very small in Orissa as the Internet penetration is very low in the state . Merely creating a good website/ on-line portal does not guarantee its use. Conscious efforts are required to encourage citizens to use the portal through advertising campaigns and education.

A high level of participation by citizens and knowledgeable civil servants is necessary to take e-goverence to the grass root lavel. Strong leadership at the political and administrative level is essential for success of digital governance in Orissa.

References

1 www.orissagov.nic.in)

2 8th National e-Goverenance Conference, Bhubaneswar,2005 (www.orissagov.nic.in)

3 Department Of Revenue Government Of Orissa (www.orissagov.nic.in)