The State of Himachal Pradesh, known as “Dev Bhoomi”, is situated in the North of India with a population of 62 Lakhs and an area of 56 thousand square Kilometers. “Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible” has been the motto of NIC Himachal Pradesh ever since its establishment in the year 1988.
?| Citizen Services With the maturing of IT in India, there has been a shift in focus with emphasis on providing more citizen services. The NIC HP has implemented the following citizen centric projects:
? LokMitra Project: The NIC Himachal Pradesh State Unit (NIC-HP) has formulated the LokMitra project as a Government to Citizen Interface. The pilot of the LokMitra project has been implemented in the Hamirpur district. Twenty-five Information Centres were set up in the district, which are managed by the unemployed youth selected by the LokMitra Society on a self-sustaining basis. The basic objective is to provide various services to the people living in rural areas at their doorsteps like grievance redressal, queries, downloadable forms, details of development schemes, how to avail benefit from various schemes, market rates, buy-sell, matrimonial, notices, tenders, vacancy details etc. A nominal fee is charged from the users of this service. Based on the feedback and lessons learnt in the pilot project, it is proposed to implement the LokMitra project in a modified form in the whole state as a G2C Project. Sh. Virbhadra Singh, Hon’ble Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh specially mentioned LokMitra in his budget speech of year 2003 laying stress on its implementation in all districts of HP. “The LokMitra Project has been listed as one of the 20 Hot e-Gov projects of the country by the Dataquest Magazine-September 15, 2003 issue.”
? Electoral Rolls: The Electoral Rolls of HP, in Hindi, covering 42 Lakh electors have been published on the HP Government website and can be searched on name, polling station and serial number wise.
? Web enabled Hotel Reservation System software: The Web-Enabled Hotels Reservation System software developed and implemented for the HP Tourism Development Corporation, with hotels at 54 different geographical locations has been implemented for the last three years. The software has interfaces for reservation offices and individuals for making on-line bookings in any of the hotels of HPTDC.
? Publishing of Examination Results: The NIC HP has been successfully publishing all examination results of the HP Board of School Education for the last three academic years. This year, the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) was introduced for the Board results by setting up a Server with telephone lines at NIC, Shimla. The results of all classes were published on the website http:// hpresults.nic.in and made available to students on local call basis within Himachal. About 8 Lakh students accessed their results through the website and the IVRS system, which is an achievement in itself for a State with a total population of 62 Lakhs. Sh. B.R. Rahi, Chairman, HP Board of School Education wrote to NIC, “I congratulate the NIC officials who made it possible. The NIC HP has been providing this remarkable service and that’s why the Board could achieve the distinction of disseminating results information through IVRS, website and Email.”
? PEHAL-The E-Governance Initiatives: To introduce transparency in the government functioning and to give better, friendlier, speedier, efficient services to the citizen on a single window, an attempt has been made in HP by establishing E-governance centers in various districts of HP where activities related to Vehicle Registration, Driving License, Registration of Land Deeds, Arms License, Land Records Copy(/ Nakal(HIMBHOOMI), Passport Form Collection Centre have been taken up.
Computerisation in the Administration : ? HP Secretariat: The Secretariat LAN is spread across three buildings viz Armsdale, Yojna Bhawan and CM Secretariat. As many as 150 terminals and 75 clients are installed in these buildings and 8 servers are used to serve applications to the users on the clients and terminals. A number of software have been developed and implemented for various application areas. The important ones are LAN-REFNIC-letters and files monitoring system, Freedom Fighters MIS, House Allotment MIS, Vehicle Expenditure Monitoring System, etc.
? CM Office: CM-REFNIC software has been developed for monitoring the references received in the Chief Minister Office from various sources (General Public, Ministers, MLAs and other VIPs) relating to subjects like grievances, transfer, development etc. The software provides for diary of the references, report generation, queries and reminders.
? Districts computerisation: To computerise the activities of the District Administration in a standardized manner, an exercise was taken up in 1993 to study the areas where the computerisation could help to meet the desired objectives of transparency, efficiency and better governance. The project, ‘DISNIC-District Administration Project ’ is envisaged and following software have been developed and implemented in all districts:
- Public Grievance Information System
- Peshi Branch Monitoring Information System
- Reference Monitoring Information System
- Group Housing Management Information System
- Copying Branch Management Information system
- Revenue Recoveries Management Information System
- Cash Counter Management Information System
- Schemes Monitoring Information System
- Tribal District MIS
- Sadar Kanungo MIS
? Excise & Taxation: The NIC HP has developed software for computerisation of all Excise Barriers in the State. The Tax Barrier MIS software takes care of incoming and out-going goods by capturing ST-XXVI Form data and generating receipts for tax. The software is implemented at the major barriers. The DISNIC-Sales Tax software has been implemented at the AETC offices to monitor the returns filed by the Dealers and cross checking the returns against goods recorded at the Barriers.
? Education: Two software, namely Personnel MIS and Institution MIS have been developed for the Secondary Education department, which employs more than 40,000 employees. Data is captured at the District level and further analysis/monitoring is done at the Directorate level.
? 7th All India School Education Survey The NIC HP has been entrusted with the design and development of software for data entry, validations & national level tabulationsforthe7th All India School Education project. The software for data entry has already been distributed to all State Units in a workshop held in the month of April 2003 at Shimla, which was inaugurated by DG, NIC.
? Rural Development: The Web-enabled RuralSoft software, developed by NIC Hqrs, has been modified to allow Block level data entry. Comprehensive online checks have also been added in the software to capture quality data directly from the 75 Blocks of HP. The software has been implemented for two schemes of SGSY and SGRY after imparting training to 64 employees of the rural development department.
? Generalised Software: The NIC HP has developed generalised software for Payroll processing, Personnel MIS, Departmental Budget Monitoring System, Inventory Management Information System.
? Land Record Computerisation (HIMBHOOMI): The Himbhoomi software aims at generating Records Of Rights automatically and to provide the copy of records to the individuals and encompasses Land Records, Land Reforms, Agriculture Census, Agriculture Statistics, Minor Irrigation Census, Customary & Forestry rights information. The software is getting implemented in all Tehsils of HP.
? Welfare Department: HP Welfare Deptt disburses pensions to around 1,60,000 old aged, handicapped, widow, lepers, destitute pensioners quarterly in the form of Money Orders. The software generates Money Orders, ledgers and helps to keep track on the returned Money Orders, acknowledgement, dispatch details etc. The software has streamlined the system and reduced the drudgery of the work. The software for Online Disability Certificates Issuance to the handicapped is also functional for the department and around 30,000 disability certificates have been issued through the software. The web-interface updated quarterly gives information of pension disbursement and issue of disability certificates.
? Finance-State Budget Processing: A software was developed to simplify the process of budget preparation of the State in the year 1994. The budget books are prepared through this software. Now the software has been converted into the Windows platform. Besides generating the budget books, the Budget CD is prepared and the summary of the budget is hosted on the web at http:// himachal.nic.in/finance
? Online Treasuries Information System: Himachal Pradesh was among the first States in the country to computerise the accounts compilation process in the District Treasuries of the State. The DISNIC-Treasury software was developed and implemented in the year 1990 and has been running smoothly. Now, the online version of the software (on Windows platform) has been tested and implemented in one Treasury and is under implementation in other Treasuries.
?| Web Services: The official website of the Himachal Pradesh Government (http:// himachal.nic.in) has been developed by NIC as a web-portal covering all aspects related to the Government of HP. Special emphasis has been laid on the E-Governance and G2C services aspect. The website has won the Best Website Award (Silver Icon Year 2002) in the E-Governance conference organized by the Department of Personnel & Public Grievances, Govt of India. After conferring of the Silver Icon Award to the Himachal Government website, Sh. Arvind Kaul, then Principal Secretary (IT) wrote an appreciation letter to NIC and commented “The conferring of Silver Icon Status is a morale booster for the state of Himachal Pradesh with respect to the IT sector initiatives undertaken, especially in the field of E-Governance”.
?| Computerisation in the Judiciary: The NIC HP initiated computerisation process in the H.P. High Court in the month of March 1994 by posting one officer. The LOBIS software was implemented and extended to the filing and inquiry counters. Over the years a number of other software have been developed at HP High Court and now two NIC officers are posted. These software are Fixed Deposits Receipt Monitoring, Indian Law Report (Himachal series), Personnel MIS, Library Information System, Subordinate Courts Disposal Information System etc. NIC has been able to train nearly 150 employees of the HP High Court in the use of various application software. The website of the HP High Court has been designed and developed by NIC cell at High Court and is available at http://himachal.nic.in/highcourt The District courts computerisation was actively pursued by NIC HP and the District Courts Information System software has been implemented in the 11 District Courts.
?| Computerisation in the Legislature: The NIC HP has posted one officer in June 1996 at the HP Vidhan Sabha to computerise its activities, being one of the three important wings of Democracy. The various software developed and implemented are Discretionary Grants Monitoring System, Loans Monitoring System, Bills Monitoring System, Budget Monitoring System, Recurring Deposits Monitoring System, Telephone Billing System, Pension MIS for Ex-MLA’s and Payroll Processing System. The NIC Vidhan Sabha has developed and launched the website of Legislative Assembly, which can be accessed at http://himachal.nic.in/hpvs. During Assembly Sessions Daily/Supplementary List of Business, Rotation of Ministers, Tentative Calendar, Day wise list of Assembly Questions, Brief of days proceedings, Corrigendums are published.
?| Training: The NIC HP has entered into an MOU with the Himachal Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) for providing quality training on IT tools to the State Government officers/officials on a regular and uniform basis. NIC has provided two faculty members at HIPA and conducts training courses on paid basis and equal number of courses are organised by NIC free of cost at Shimla and all District Centres of NIC. The following facts, after the signing of the MOU, speak for themselves: ? Revenue of over Rs.18 Lakhs generated for NIC through paid courses ? 7300 officers/officials of the State Government imparted training in 568 courses ? Establishment of IT laboratories at HIPA, Shimla and District Training Institutes at Mandi and Dharamshala with infrastructure worth Rs.1.5 Crores
?| Paid Projects: The State Unit has formulated and executed a number of paid projects, the prominent ones are: ? Department of Education (Development of Personnel MIS and Institution MIS software and supply of hardware) ? HP Tourism Development Corporation (Web-enabled Hotels Reservation System software and supply of hardware) ? Department of Rural Development (Supply of hardware, training and implementation of RuralSoft software) ? Department of Treasuries & Accounts (Supply of hardware) ? IVRS for the HP Board of School Education ? HPSEDC (establishing dial-up connectivity at counting centre and training to the operators) ? Design, development and hosting of the websites of Corporations/Boards/ Departments
?| Email/Internet connectivity: In H.P. Secretariat, Shimla, one SCPC VSAT is installed to cater to the needs of Internet browsing/ data transfer and E-mail facility to the state government departments on LAN as well as dial-up. Another SCPC VSAT is dedicated for the use of Video Conferencing facility extended to State Government departments. It also serves as a backup data channel. One SCPC VSAT each is installed at Mandi and Dharamshala. There are as many as 237 users (including 64 dial-up) provided with INTERNET/E-mail facility at Shimla and around 40 users at Mandi and Dharamshala.
?| Future Plans: ? Setting up of the Himachal Pradesh State Wide Area Network (HIMSWAN) ? Implementation of LokMitra on the Internet for G2C Services covering all districts ? Pehal-Establishing E-Governance Centres in all Districts/ Sub-divisions The State Government, in its IT policy, has acknowledged that in Himachal Pradesh, the efforts regarding E-Governance have been largely NIC driven. The State Unit of the NIC, headed by the State Informatics Officer, has been identified as the E-Governance Wing of the DoIT.
For further information, please contact, State Informatics Officer NIC Himachal Pradesh State Unit HP Secretariat, Shimla – 171002 Email : sio@hp.nic.in