e-Awas is a comprehensive, integrated and easy to use software and mobile App that has made the process of house allotment for government officials simple, fast and efficient. e-Awas has been developed by NIC, UT Chandigarh and has helped make the entire process paperless, end-to-end.
eAwas, which aims at bringing transparency and enabling hassle free allotment of Government Houses, is a step towards taking Chandigarh into the Digital Age and using technology to solve real world problems.
The portal (http://eawas.chd.gov.in) enables online submission of applications by employees and facilitates allotment of vacant houses through a bidding system.
THE SOFTWARE There are a total of 13789 government houses in Chandigarh UT out of which 11961 houses of 18 categories are listed under General Pool for allotment to the employees of Haryana, Punjab, Punjab & Haryana High Court and Chandigarh who are posted in Chandigarh. The existing system was totally manual and the data was being maintained in a large number of registers, which resulted in delays in the processes. There was no single point from where their concerns could be addressed. Status of Licence Fee received and maintenance of the houses by engineering department was not available for the House Allotment Committee (HAC) to take any decisions. Despite being vacant, many of the houses were not occupied, causing revenue loss to the government.
These problems engendered a need to automate the processes of the House Allotment department, rent controller and the maintenance wing of engineering department as managing a large number of houses and the continuous flow of applications required a lot of effort and resources. With this in mind, the e-Awas software was conceptualized and the project was initiated under the guidance of Dr S. B. Deepak Kumar, IAS, Secretary, House Allotment Committee (Upper) cum Secretary, IT and Shri Jitender Yadav, IAS, Secretary House Allotment Committee (Lower)-cum-Director, IT.
Allotment of houses was a big challenge. There was no centralized system and the data was scattered. We have consolidated the data, on-boarded various departments and created a transparent mechanism where employees can bid for houses of their choice and allotment is done as per seniority. I believe the initiative would be highly beneficial to the employees. NIC Chandigarh UT Unit has put in tremendous efforts in this exercise to make it a success. — Dr. S. B. Deepak Kumar, IAS Secretary, House Allotment Committee(Upper) & Secretary, Information Technology
Developed by NIC, UT Chandigarh, e-Awas is a comprehensive, integrated and easy to use solution that has made the processes simpler, faster and more efficient. It is backed by an efficient monitoring and control mechanism that addresses the requirements of each and every stakeholder.
THE WORKFLOW Any applicant can register himself/herself and apply online for government accommodation as per the eligibility criteria and can participate in the bidding process, after his/her application is verified and accepted by the House Allotment Committee. The features of the software include applying for a house, vacating a house, generation and updation of seniority lists, bidding for vacant houses, allotment, licence fee payment, handling of mutual exchange/extension applications, employee grievance redressal, eligibility scrutiny, bid details and house maintenance. Training sessions have been organized for the stakeholders and the trainers were adequately trained to assist applicants facing problems. A dedicated help-desk was also setup which attended to and resolved the queries of the applicants.
E-AWAS MOBILE APP The App was conceptualized and created keeping in mind the ease of use of a mobile App as compared to a software. It assists field inspectors in reporting status of houses instantly after checking the complete details on the App itself, which would be helpful and time saving for further processing. The App has been developed by Centre of Competency for Mobile App Development, NIC Shimla.
TECHNOLOGY USED eAwas application has been developed using Microsoft .NET 4.5 Framework with Microsoft MSSQL Server-2012 as backend. For making the application easy to use, JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and JQUERY have been used. Reporting module has been developed using RDLC. For the design of the web application, RWD (Responsive Web Designing) has been followed which uses BOOTSTRAP framework.
SALIENT FEATURES OF E-AWAS • Automating all activities/processes involved in the allotment of houses making the process paperless. • Allowing bidding for houses of their choice by the applicants using only the software. • Making the status of houses, seniority list and allotment details available to the employees which makes the process more transparent. • The process has been re-engineered & the forms redesigned for providing better services in a simple and quick way. • Easy maintenance and prompt updating of housing records. • Making housing records/transactions tamper proof and genuine. • Better tracking of data relating to allottees, license fee recovery, subletting, litigation etc. • The allottees can monitor their license fee recovery position, which facilitates payment of outstanding license fee dues, if any, as well as quick issuance of No Demand Certificate. • Revenue saving for the government by reducing the cost, time and mitigated the wastage of resources involved in the process. Vacant houses are quickly and optimally allotted resulting in better revenue collection for the Government. • Regular alerts are sent through SMS/Email. Information is also made available on Portal which is Mobile enabled. • Automatic generation of waiting lists and vacancy registers • Aadhaar authentication based Allotment on specified dates of the month. Applicants can download the Allotment Letter themselves. • Facility for centralized maintenance system which can be monitored at senior level thus bringing accountability. • Grievance module to help the allottee with issues related to allotment, maintenance of the accommodation and rent. Automatic escalation of grievance to next higher level if no action is taken on it within 15 days.
THE WAY AHEAD Rent Controller Module would be fully integrated with the eAwas application once the backlog data is entered, to take care of the licence fee. The procedure of collecting licence fee data from various offices would be automated which would help in reconciliation. It would also help in issuance of NoC to the allottee. Also, the application would be integrated with a payment gateway, for the online payment of rent and eSign feature would be added to make it more secure. The eAwas Mobile App would be enhanced further to cater to the requirements of the applicants and officials from the various offices.