'Leading from the front' is synonymous with Jhansi, be it the First Freedom Struggle of India or the modern day ICT based Governance, Jhansi has been the torch bearer with earnest dedication. Centuries have moved from twentieth to twenty first but the will to provide good governance to people of the region is still undiminished as shown by the district administration led by Sh.. Raj Shekhar, IAS & District Magistrate, Jhansi. JHANSI is also known as the Gateway to Bundelkhand and at present it is a Divisional Commissioner's Headquarter including district Jhansi, Lalitpur and Jalaun. With a total population of 17.45 lakhs, about 840 villages, 8 blocks and 5 tehsils, the district has always established high standards of serv-ice right from the days of the legendry Rani Lakshmi Bai, the famous Queen of Jhansi to the present day administration. Their efforts have not only been recog-nized at the state level but have also been applauded at the national level with awards such as 'CSI - Nihilent e-GOVERNANCE Award 2009-10 for Excellence under the District category' & the 'NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours 2010' by Nasscom foundation. Both these awards recognize the passion and commitment for e-Governance of the district administration. Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra Jhansi, has developed and imple-mented a unique system of grievance redressal in form of Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra (JJSK) which was launched for the citizens on 10th June, 2009. The system has used modern technology to innovate the existing manual systems and provide a citizen friendly approach in terms of reach, cost, time & effectiveness. In the last 18 months, the project has undergone many technical innova-tions and administrative reforms to incorporate fool proof mechanism of quality cross check and monitoring leading to efficient administration and corruption free society. Above all it ensures the satisfaction of the aggrieved persons thus strengthen-ing the concept of e-accountability and e-democracy. How it works JJSK provides round-the-clock (24x7) platform to the citizens for fil-ing their grievances. Citizens just need to dial a pre-designated toll-free number to lodge their complaint irre-spective of place and time. The griev-ance is registered online and details of the grievance are also recorded automatically as an audio file. Every complaint is assigned a unique com-plaint number and category depend-ing upon the severity of the com-plaint. The redressal time of the com-plaint is based on this severity and ranges from 24 hrs to 7 days maxi-mum. All the grievance are marked to the concerned officer for necessary action as soon as they are received and various electronic modes are used to inform the complainant & official that a grievance has been received. As soon as grievance is registered in the database an SMS is automatically triggered on the mobile no of the aggrieved person bearing details of com-plaint number, category, officer to whom the complaint is marked and target date for disposal. Simultaneously, an SMS is also sent to the concerned officer bearing the details of the complaint and mobile number of complainant. The concerned official is also intimated telephonically and a physical copy of the complaint with severity and other details is provided through Fax/ Post/ Special Messenger for immediate action. This electronic transfer of complaints has played a critical role in saving valuable time & cost both for the citizen and the state government and the MIS created helps in tracking the com-plaint till its disposal. — An excellent example of public service, dedication, devotion and compassion for common man. I am sure this step will give way to a long-long journey. Keep it up. Best Wishes… Sh. Shankar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, D.I.T, GoI, New Delhi. JJSK Management Senior district officials, administrative staff and computer operators are all assigned duties in JJSK to run and moni-tor the project in shifts of eight hours each on voluntary basis. MIS based monitoring is a critical component of JJSK. The MIS keeps track of all complaints and SMS are automatically generated by the system when a complaint is not disposed within the stipulated time. One SMS is automat-ically triggered on the mobile of the offi-cer prompting him about the delay while another SMS is sent on the mobile of the complainant informing the delay. The duty officers at JJSK also verify each and every disposal report by calling the aggrieved person and taking his feedback for the same. In case of dissatisfaction, the concerned officer is asked to look into the complaint again. If the complainant still remains dissatisfied with the disposal, the District Magistrate/ Chairman JJSK calls him in weekly monitoring meeting for a face-to-face interaction with the con-cerned official. The disposal details are entered in the software only after satisfac-tion of the aggrieved person and SMS are sent to both the complainant & the offi-cial at the closure of the complaint. Besides this, daily one SMS is automati-cally triggered on the mobile of concerned officers and administrative team of JJSK informing them about the status of com-plaints concerning their departments and the pending status. Status of JJSK The disposal rate of complaints received through the system is around 96%. Till December 7th, 2010 a total of 26,578 complaints were received by JJSK out of which 25,500 have already been disposed. The default rate (about 2.4%) is quite low and shows the determination of the dis-trict administration. Government of Uttar Pradesh has decided to implement the Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra model of Grievance redressal in all the districts of the state and NIC, U.P. State Unit has already devel-oped the web-based application. — To promote e-Governance and improve delivery of various citizen services using ICT District Administration with the technical support of NIC District unit has taken several initiatives. Moreover, all Government offices have been asked to carry out necessary process re-engineering in order to simplify Government procedures to make them suitable for an efficient and transparent delivery of public services through use of available ICT tools. Sh. Raj Shekhar, IAS, District Magistrate, Jhansi. JHANSI JAN SUVIDHA KENDRA (JJSK) DATA FLOW DIAGRAM Very soon the new system will be launched for all the districts of Uttar Pradesh. OTHER MAJOR PROJECTS NIC, Jhansi has made remarkable achievements in implementation of various other e-Governance projects. However, the major focus of all these projects have been on delivery of gov-ernment services in an easier and effi-cient manner to the citizens of the Bundelkhand region. Single Window System: Single Window Systems have been imple-mented at District and all Tehsil Headquarters. Different types of cer-tificates such as Income, Caste and Domicile are being generated using the application. The complete detail of the applicant and the certificates issued is available on the web for verification purposes. UP State Wide Area Network (UPSWAN): Jhansi was one of the first few districts to implement SWAN. All the tehsils and blocks have been con-nected to the District SWAN PoP and various Government offices have been provided horizontal connectivity with-in the collectorate campus and outside. Many other projects such as distri-bution of computerized Khatauni (Record-of-Rights) from Tehsil Computer Centre, Transport Compu-terisation including Registration, Fitness, Permit, Taxation and digital photography for issuance of driving license, Treasury Computerisation, Property Registra-tion system and many others have been implemented in district Jhansi. These projects have certainly changed the citizen-govern-ment interaction and made these serv-ices available to the common man in a transparent and simple manner.