Achieving milestone is not an everyday business. Claiming appreciation for achievement is even tougher. The feeling goes beyond the expected elation, when endeavour, designed and perspired for common good catches people’s eyes to attain recognition.
Project EASYGAS and project KISAN, the two exemplary web based applications developed by the NIC, Gonda, have been streamlined in order to address the needs of sections of the society in rural areas - household section and agriculture sector. The two initiatives provide booking and delivery services of essential commercial goods like LPG cylinders and fertilizers along with other essential agricultural inputs like seeds, implement subsidies, agriculture loans, soil testing etc.
EASYGAS EASYGAS is a G2C & B2C application designed to induce accessibility and answerability into the company-consumer interface. It arises from the need to build a transparent system for an accurate statement of LPG stock position with the various distribution agencies, and its distribution in the district.
The consumers can now book their LPG cylinders at the Common Service Centres (CSC), in the villages without the need to travel to the office of the agency. The CSC issues a receipt against each such booking, which entitles the customer to get a home delivery of the cylinder on a particular due date facilitated by the agency. This due date is defined by the administration in consultation with the Gas Agencies taking into account all government holidays and other requisitions.
The monitoring mechanism for the district administration has been strengthened too, with the generation of pendency reports that reflects the status of cylinders delivered within time and after the due date. Various reports such as customer-wise pendency reports, date-wise delivery and default reports, agency wise delivery/default reports and CSC delivery report allows the monitoring at stakeholder level and gives an insight to the administration to plug leakages.
Dr. ROSHAN JACOB, IAS District Magistrate, Gonda As people managers, our constant strive is to reduce the opacity and human error in public service delivery mechanisms and to make the citizen to government interface as accessible as possible - literally, to carry government to people's doorstep. KISAN and EASY GAS are both attempts in that direction, addressing two massive consumer base, viz; farmers and LPG consumers respectively. This was possible through collaborative efforts of district administration and NIC.
KISAN KISAN is a G2C application envisaged as a dynamic interface providing a full spectrum of services to the farmers, right from the sowing of seeds to the sale of crops. The system also provides SMS/Voice SMS based alert services to the subscribed stakeholders.
• Registration The registration process is mandatory for all farmers seeking benefits from the project. The process is simple, a farmer just needs to visit CSC/Lokvani kiosk and fill up the necessary details to get registered. After successful registration, a unique KISAN code is provided to the farmer by the CSC. The information is recorded in the database on a self-declaration basis.
• Soil Testing & Soil Health Card Any farmer wanting to test his farm soil has to approach the nearest CSC with the soil sample. The CSC operator tests the sample with the help of soil testing kit. The values obtained are entered on the portal along with the details of crops for which fertilizer recommendation is sought. The system based on an analytical tool generates the Soil Health Card for the selected crop area with the fertilizer requirements.
• Fertilizer Booking & Monitoring Farmers willing to book the fertilizers in advance have to provide a cropping pattern and choice of point-of-purchase to the CSC operator. KISAN software automatically calculates the necessary amount of each type of fertilizer. Thereafter, the Agriculture Department allots the fertilizer, subject to availability of stocks. The software informs the farmer - by means of Voice SMS/Text SMS - of the allotment of stock so that they can collect the same.
• Agriculture Loan (Kisan Credit Card) The farmer can apply for any type of agriculture loan through the CSC. The CSC operator enters all the information in prescribed format. The district coordinator of the concerned bank checks his account at the portal and after a preliminary scrutiny; forwards all the applications to the concerned branch for verification. After verification, he will update application status at portal as having been sanctioned or rejected, and in case of rejection, elucidate reason for the same. The application will be marked as default after 30 days as per RBI guidelines.
• Agriculture Equipment Subsidy Disbursal Monitoring System Any Farmer willing to get agriculture equipment subsidy can apply online through any of the CSCs without repeated visits to the Agriculture Department or persuasion/gratification of middle level functionaries. Farmers can track status of their respective applications and the district administration/departments can check the demand & monitor the disbursal system through the portal.
• e-Procurement Farmers who want to sell their crop at Government Purchase Centres can now book the date and centre of their choice through any CSC using the Crop Procurement Management System. The farmer just needs to provide the quantity, date of sale & name of purchase centre to CSC. The availability for desired centre and time slot is checked online and informed to the farmer using SMS. Once the time is allotted, the purchase centre is bound to purchase the booked quantity on the booked date and update the procurement details, which is monitored by the district administration.
MILESTONES EASYGAS • Vanishing queues – steep drop in ‘over-the-counter’ booking • Transparent procedure and adequate supply, reduced possibility of black marketing and hoarding. System Alert on multiple bookings prevents diversion of domestic gas by commercial consumers. • Both, the district administration & citizens get accurate information about stock position, supply and deficit of the essential commodity. • Ensures delivery within stipulated time to urban and rural consumers from the pre-identified distribution points • Generated employment for more than 260 technical persons
KISAN • Empowering farmers with technology • Bottom-up approach to collect, calculate and aggregate fertilizer/seed requirement with available data of crop pattern and fertility • Networked supply chain of co-operative societies, fertilizer dealers, departments and farmers • Ensures that Kisan Credit Card applications are processed within the time and in strict adherence to RBI norms • Service-specific receipt generated by CSC allows farmers to track their request • Provides transparent MIS for wheat/paddy procurement and various reports enable effective monitoring by the administration • In case of natural calamities like floods, droughts etc. relief can be directly transferred into the farmer’s bank A/C
IMPACT ON CSCs While providing services to the citizens in a user-friendly and hassle-free manner, the system has also had tremendous impact on making CSC financially viable. To the CSC owner, the income from these two services has given them a much needed boost and now more and more CSCs are coming up in the district.
IMPROVED EFFICIENCY By means of this initiative, there is a notable increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of gas cylinders in EASYGAS and allotment of agriculture inputs, disposal of applications for agriculture equipment subsidy, agriculture loan etc. in KISAN.
CONSUMER SATISFACTION Both the packages offer a single-window solution through a friendly approach. The consumer gets detailed information through the IVRS/SMS/voice call systems in his local language. Number of visits, uncertainty etc. have reduced and the project has helped transforming the villages into knowledge hubs. Plugging into global networks has bought heightened opportunities/prosperity to the people.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION The EASYGAS initiative for its laudable efforts has won the eINDIA Award, 2013. Simultaneously, KISAN has received thumping applaud from the farmer community, and is appreciated by the State Administration, which is planning to replicate the same in other districts as well. Also, it has been recognized by the Ministry of Communication & IT to be dovetailed with CSC services.