The Government of India owns a large number of residential units (over 65000) under General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) at New Delhi. Government allots them to MPs, Supreme Court & High Court Judges, senior government officials & other employees of the Government of India and its attached / subordinate organisations, through the Directorate of Estates (DoE), which is the Estate Manager of the GPRA under the Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation(MUD&PA ). DoE receives applications from all the eligible applicants for various types of residential units (more than 0.2 Million), prepares waiting list and allots residences to them. The computerisation in the DoE started in the early 1990s. However, it was not very effective, as the computerised system implemented during those days did not attempt to map the business process involved in the allotment of these residential units in totality. ? A New Beginning: Government Accommodation Management System (GAMS) is a computerised system for government accommodation management, automating all the activities starting from the submission of the application to the vacation of the residential unit by the allottee. This system is radically different from the earlier system which updated databases in offline mode making it less current and therefore of not much use. The required software has been designed and developed by NIC. GAMS covers following activities related to the allotment of GPRA houses: • Redesigning the application form • Reducing the number of forms • Simplification of the application form • Registration of applications for initial allotment, change of accommodation, and allotments on medical / functional and other grounds and printing of acknowledgement slips • Registration of vacation of house for any category • Preparation of waiting lists for initial, change and adhoc allotments • Preparation of proposal for allotment according to such waiting lists • Allotment as per the finalised proposal for allotment • Acceptance / technical acceptance of allotment by the employee • Printing of authority slip for the possession of house • Reconsideration for re-allotment by the employee • Preparation of first rent bill and revised rent bill in future • Allottee Account Number (AAN) for all the allottees • Cancellation of allotment • Retention / extension of house after cancellation • Regularisation of house allotted to an employee upon death, retirement and transfer as per rules • Accounting of license fee recovery from allottees • Subletting and litigation cases • Printing of letters at various stages with signatures embedded in the letter of allotment Apart from automating the above activities, GAMS also provides: • MIS Reports for different sections helping in the decision making of the MUD&PA • Online registers of housing stock, list of allottees, list of occupied houses, vacation, cancellation, retention / extension, license fee recoveries, etc. • Information dissemination to all applicants either through Internet or Information Kiosks • Search engine for making various online queries ? Technology Used: GAMS uses the state-of-the-art IT. It is implemented using 3-tier architecture as a web-enabled application. These are: • Database server- Oracle 9i Database Server on RedHat Linux Advance Server • Application server- Oracle 9iAS Application Server on RedHat Linux Advance Server • Front end- Internet Browser on Microsoft Windows. The application has been developed with the Developer Tool Oracle Internet Developer Suite. ? Highlights: • Authentication with a difference – Virtual Private Database and Role-based Menu: The GAMS software incorporates the concept of data access according to Oracle user account and the associated set of rules & policies implemented through Virtual Private Database (VPD). Each authorised user of the system has been given a username with password and has been assigned specific roles to operate on GAMS. Based on the set of rules and policies associated with one’s account, he / she gets a specified housing stock and based on the roles, also gets a customised menu option which helps the user to do the activities allocated to him / her. One cannot see or operate on the housing stock assigned to any other user. An authorised user cannot do the activities not assigned to him / her. • No more Hand Written Records / Letters: All letters, registers, records and MIS reports are generated by the system. • Accounting of License Fee Recovery: The DoE levies License Fee for the houses allotted by it. It results in the collection of a large sum of money for the Government. GAMS helps in tracking & accounting the License Fees recovered. Further, the allotment is done much faster, thereby reducing the number of days a house remains vacant. • Allotment of Allottee Account Number(AAN): GAMS allots an Allottee Account Number (AAN) to each allottee of the government accommodation. Once allotted, the AAN shall remain the same throughout his/her entire service. This shall facilitate the accounting of the license fee recovery and also tracking of the movement of government servants from one accommodation to another. • Dissemination of Information to the Applicant – Citizen Interface: Information is available through the helpdesks available in the Information Facilitation Centre (IFC) of the DoE. The Website of the DoE has been revamped to display information available through GAMS. All forms needed with regard to the allotment, are available on the website and can be downloaded by the applicants. Information Kiosk has been installed to provide information to the applicants. Plans have been drawn up to install these kiosks in various bhawans to help all the non-Internet users. GAMS has been implemented in all sections of the DoE dealing with GPRA. The successful implementation of the project has attracted the attention of several departments. Requests have been received to implement a similar system in the regional offices of the Directorate.