Commencement of Videoconferencing technology in the country was an effort to help various government agencies to bring the decision maker and the executor in E-gov. closed to each other Initially; Videoconferencing Services were in progress with temporary sessions through portable VSAT for important conferences, exhibitions, seminars, VIP inaugurations, etc. Today videoconferencing services of NIC have reached 490 locations in the country and it covers all the districts in 21 states

B. K. Sharma Senior System Analyst NIC HQ bks@nic.in

During the last 11 years of videoconferencing, the technology has reached from 128 Kbps to 2 Mbps and in the multipoint connectivity, the capacity has reached from 8 sites to 32 sites on a single server which can be cascaded with other servers as and when required. Technology wise it is also in the phase of migration from VSAT to IP, as a primary connectivity.

At present, more than 400 videoconferencing Studios are operational on high speed and can be connected up to 2 Mbps.

This could be achieved with the support of state governments who provided the infrastructure for local studio installed in the Conference room in the district headquarters.

Presently videoconferencing services are used for catering to the following Public Grievances Citizen Charted Disaster Management Project Monitoring and Reviewing Tele-Health Services Tele-education Knowledge management E-Governance

Former PM Vajpayee in Public grievance Programme with Farmers during Nov.2000

Public Grievances redressal The State Governments have established Public Grievances Cells with the view of providing a comprehensive mechanism for grievance redressal. Initially, during November 2000, ex-Prime Minister Vajpayee started using videoconferencing for addressing public grievances. Chief Minister offices or General Administration Office in the states have been equipped with WEB server and SQL server with Internet connectivity to store the complaints while the client end needs Internet connectivity to enroll the complaints. For tracking the complaints at different levels, different mechanisms are used.

Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are some of the prominent states that have opted for videoconferencing technology for tracking the complaints of masses.

Chattisgarh The General Administration Department (GAD) of Chattisgarh State Government conducts Videoconferencing sessions with Bilaspur, Bastar and Pendra on a daily basis. The general public can freely approach these centers and lodge their complaints and explain their difficulties to the administration. The CM office monitors the progress of the case on the time limit date of the case. This arrangement is gaining popularity day by day, as people are now able to contact the senior most officers of the state with their grievances face to face on VC.

Rajasthan Hon'ble Chief Minister Rajasthan regularly conducts the videoconferencing session under e-Samadhan Programme with the district officials in presence of complainant to keep track of public grievances.

Hon'ble CM, Rajasthan during the videoconferencing session

Statistics of Disposal of Public Grievances (Chart with values: 2005: Beginning of Yr 48816, Received 46175, Total 94991, Disposed 35095, Pending in end of Yr 59896; 2006: Beginning of Yr 59896, Received 33843, Total 93781, Disposed 75817, Pending in end of Yr 17922)

Madhya Pradesh Commissioning of Videoconferencing studios in Madhya Pradesh through DAMA VSATs began in 2004.

Chief Minister Office of the state issued circular to all officials to use videoconferencing technology regularly for day-to-day work. This created a direct exchange of ideas between the policy maker and the executor at fixed periodic schedule. Feedback of executor and periodic reviews helped the state government to complete the project efficiently.

(a) Samadhan online - In 2006, the state government decided to track the public grievances through videoconferencing programme “Samadhan online“ on every first Tuesday of the month with all district officials and Chief Minister office. Public grievances are selected randomly and sent for comments and compliance in the morning of the first Tuesday every month. Concerned Officials are required to resolve the grievances before 04:00 PM during the programme day. Chief Minister in presence of the aggrieved citizen discusses the grievance with the concerned officer online through video conferencing.

It was a big step with support of technology to extend the benefit to a common man where a villager can have directly interaction with the Chief Minister. This set up offer a key mechanism by which public servants can be held to account for their actions.

Samadhan Online session

This public grievances system through the videoconferencing drew the attention of Dr. Abdul Kalam and he appreciated the programme while delivering a lecture in vidhan sabha Bhopal on 17th July 2006, Dr. Kalam said, “it was an earnest effort to have elaborate direct democracy at the village level through this programme.”

(b) PARAKH – PARAKH is a feedback programme through which the Chief Secretary of the state monitors the performance of basic services provided by the state government Departments like hand pumps, transformers, schools, health services, anganwadis, public distribution system etc.

Nodal officer for every village visits allotted village every month, meets villagers and collects information in the prescribed format. This information is keyed in various fault reports generated and distributed for remedial action. Commissioners, Collectors and SDOs review the performance every month and finally the Chief Secretary evaluates the issues through Video conferencing sessions on third Thursday of every month.

The impact of videoconferencing due to the involvement of Chief minister in public grievances system and chief secretary in monitoring the basic services elevated the usage graph of videoconferencing in the state and this helped NIC to put a claim for the Limca book of record for highest numbers of videoconferencing in the country in E-governance and Limca book of record issued the certificate for highest videoconferencing.

Hon'ble CM of M.P. said in an interview, “The Video Conferencing strategy to address facilitates interactions between the CM, District Collector and Citizen for grievance redressal saved a revenue of Rs. 22 crore, which would have been spent on conventional methods”

It is hoped that NIC's Videoconferencing will be more and more useful in different areas for the benefit of the government and the common masses