Since its establishment in 1989, NIC Hamirpur District Centre has played a crucial role in the design and development of ICT programmes. It has significantly contributed to the strengthening and growth of an IT culture in the Himalayan District.
NIC Hamirpur was first to migrate the District Website onto the S3WaaS framework and supported other district centres of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and the North-East in replicating the process. It has developed a mobile app for the District Red Cross Society and always remained at the core of all ICT initiatives taken up by the District Administration.
ICT Initiatives in the District Him Red Cross Mobile App The Red Cross is a voluntary organisation that provides emergency relief and promotes care for vulnerable people and communities. Its mission is to inspire, encourage, and initiate humanitarian operations to reduce human suffering. Under the District Governance Mobile Challenge, a mobile app was built to automate the numerous services provided by the District Red Cross Society. Its primary objective is to provide accurate, up-to-date information and to encourage the public to donate generously so that those in need might be assisted. The app was launched by Shri Jai Ram Thakur, Hon’ble CM Himachal Pradesh during a district level event. (Refer Fig. 4.1) Salient features • Facilitates applying for lifetime membership at the District Red Cross Society • Updates information on Red Cross services • in-app call facility to Nodal Officers • Lists Nodal officers who can accept donations • Lists nearby pathological labs, available tests and their rates • Notifies about upcoming events such as Medical Camps, Blood Camps, and Red Cross Fairs
Hamirpur District Website (https://hphamirpur.nic.in/) The Hamirpur District Website is a bilingual, GIGW-compliant website built on the S3WaaS architecture that serves as a reliable source of data about the history, demography, culture, tourism, citizen services, tenders, events, and accommodation in the district.
Election The District Centre acts as a technical arm for the District Election Officer (DEO) in carrying out election activities. (Refer Fig. 4.2) NIC officers are assigned multiple roles in advance and are responsible for laying out ICT infrastructure for the conduct of elections in a smooth, effective and transparent manner. The key activities performed by the District Centre for Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha 2022 elections are: • Electronic Voting Machines management, which includes 2-stage randomisation on the web app by ECI to eliminate any source of corruption • Configuring ENCORE (ENabling Communications on Real-time Environment) for facilitating candidates to file their nominations • Webcasts poll stations activities on polling day to concerned departments for monitoring • Establishing Control Rooms at the Counting Centres as per the directives of ECI Observers, DEO and other concerned officials • Implementing ETPBS (Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System) for vote counting, result preparation and result posting
Other Key Initiatives COVID-19 Response In a short amount of time, COVID-19 has drastically altered people’s lives, either directly or indirectly, and caused misery across the country. The effects continue to be felt by the population even after several months. NIC Hamirpur played an extremely important role in managing COVID-19 related activities during lockdowns. The list that follows includes some of the District Center’s most important tasks. • Setting and managing District Control Rooms • Provided Video Conferencing (VC), email and internet services on a 24 x 7 basis • Regular updation on District Website and Social Media for the dissemination of authentic information • Developed and designed Infographics for quick and easy understanding of appropriate COVID behaviour • Provided technical support for Aarogya Setu App, COVID-19 CC Portal, RTPCR App, PM OxyCare App and RATI App • Facilitated the Issuance of COVID curfew passes and permissions for essential workers or to general public in case of a medical emergency
Sugam Kendra Sugam Kendras are eGovernance service facilitation centres that offer over 70 citizen services under a single roof. These centres have been established at the district, subdistrict, tehsil, and subtehsil levels. Key services being provided here are • Services related to vehicle registrations and other licenses • Services related to driver / conductor licenses • Arms License and related services • Land Deeds, Nakal-RoR, eStamp, PM-KISAN, Aadhaar and other certificates
Project Implementation NIC Hamirpur played a significant role in the implementation of various ICT projects for both the State and Central Government in order to leverage the influence of eGovernance in the District which resulted in the better delivery of citizen services. Some of the major ICT projects implemented by the District Centre are NGDRS, MEGH Services (Integrated Revenue Management), HimKosh (IFMS), Manav Sampada, eSamadhan, CPGRAMS, NSP, eRozgar, eKalyan, IDSP / RCH, eCourt, ePanchayat, NDAL-ALIS, IVFRT, iRAD, eHimApurti, eProcurement, AEBAS, Jeevan Pramaan, eOffice, Himpragati, MGNREGA, Anganwari Centre MIS, DEAS (Double Entry Accounting System) and ERMS (Electoral Roll Management System).
Debsweta Banik, IAS Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur The entire team of NIC Hamirpur has been working day and night in making eGovernance initiatives successful in the district. Their role has been especially commendable during the COVID-19 Pandemic. NIC Hamirpur was the first in the State to develop a dedicated section for District Election Office for the upcoming Vidhan Sabha Elections. I wish the entire team of NIC Hamirpur, all the very best and pray that they go from strength to strength in contributing to the task of transparent and effective public service delivery to the citizens of the district.
Important Events Organised • Conducted VC session with the Hon’ble President of India on National Teacher’s Day Awards Ceremony • Conducted VC sessions between the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and beneficiaries of COVID Vaccination, Ayushman Bharat and PM-CARES • Conducted VC session between the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and the beneficiaries of Ujala, Ujjwala, Himcare, and Nari Ko Naman Scheme • Organised several VCs during visits of important government officials
Accolades • Corona Warrior Award – 2020 • PC Quest Best IT Implementations Award 2016 for Hot Dak Tracking System • Skoch Order of Merit 2015 for Hot Dak Tracking System
Way Forward Pursuing ICT technological developments, NIC Hamirpur is committed to provide the District Administration and the public at large with the best ICT services by leveraging the potential of the most recent technologies. The ambit of mGovernance will eventually include more services. In the subsequent initiatives, cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics are planned to be used.