It is assumed that the name Kannur has derived from one of the deities of the Hindu pantheon ‘Kannan’ (Lord Krishna) and ‘Ur’ (place) making it the place of Lord Krishna. The district is known as the ‘Land of Looms and Lore’. Earlier the district was named ‘Cannanore’ which is anglicised from of Kannur. The district has 1 Revenue Division, 4 Taluks, and 129 Revenue Villages. It comprises of 6 Municipalities and 81 Grama Panchayats under 11 Blocks.

Since the formation of District Centre in Kannur, NIC has been facilitating district administration with its state-of-the-art ICT services so as to leverage the e-Governance scenario in the district. The centre is equipped with NICNET infrastructure having 100 Mbps redundant leased line connectivity to NIC Trivandrum with a backup line of 34 mbps. A Collectorate Data Centre is operational on a 24x7x365 basis which hosts various district level web services over Intranet and Internet. NIC has spearheaded many ICT projects in the district since its inception in 1988 and has played a significant role in most of the successful projects. The official website of Kannur, http://kannur.gov.in, designed and developed by NIC District Centre is a repository of important information related to the district.

THE LANDMARKS IN THE ICT MAP OF KANNUR • e-District e-District is one of the MMPs under the NeGP. Kannur district is the first in Kerala to implement the e-District with 23 services of Revenue Department in all its taluk and village offices (129 villages and 4 taluks). The project was rolled out in the district in December 2010. As on March 2014, around 13,07,000 applications have been submitted through CSCs and about 11,83,000 digitally signed certificates have been issued by the Village Officers/Thasildars.

• RTPerMS The Road Trenching Permit Management System (RTPerMS) is an online workflow based system for managing the permission for digging of roads by various agencies like BSNL, KWA, KSEB, etc. The project could help the administration to optimally plan the trenching activities with minimum hardships to citizens as well as to the government.

• eSAND/Nirman This is a system for neutral distribution of river sand to the citizens for the construction work. NIC has devised an e-Governance solution which helps the administration for effective implementation of the ‘Kerala protection of river banks and regulation of removal of Sand Act 2001 & Rules 2002’.

Inauguration of RTPerMS by Chief Secretary , GoK

A web service is in place to reflect the transaction count in the eTaal Portal. SMS service and mobile application for token status are value additions to the project.

• eHajar eHajar is an electronic attendance monitoring system with biometric based attendance register which has been implemented at the Collectorate. The leaves, tours and movements of the employees can be managed at all levels using eHajar.

• DCPGMS District Collectors Public Grievance Monitoring system is implemented to keep track of the grievances submitted directly to the District Collector. More than 11,200 PGs received by the Collector are available in this system. The system was inaugurated by Honb’le Chief Minister of Kerala in April 2012.

P. BALA KIRAN, District Collector I wish to put on record, the ICT services rendered by National informatics Centre for good Governance in Kannur Disrict. The e-Governance initiatives taken up by National Informatics Centre have helped the District Administration to improve their service delivery to the citizens as well as the G2G services. The roll out of eSand/Nirman, Road Trenching Permit Management System (RTPerMS), Touch Screen based information kiosk, DCPGMS and eHajar were a few major projects which could make the district to be proud on their e-Governance initiatives. The e-District model implemented in the district was the best model in the country which could not be a success without the tremendous efforts by NIC. I am grateful for the support rendered for the various other district activities like Video VC among Revenue Officers, Collectorate Surveillance System, DC*Suite, Taluk Suite, RR Online, LINK, District website management and many other activities involving ICT support. NIC has played a major role in the implementation of various State/Central Government initiated e-Governance solutions such as DBT application, e-Hospital, e-Courts, Jail-Court VC, FMPDS, Civil Supplies, Fisheries, MGNREGS, CONFONET, NADRS, etc. Expecting continued support in future, I wish NIC all the best in their endeavours.

• Touch Screen based Information Kiosk A touch screen based information kiosk has been setup which disseminates district specific information and status. This includes general information about the district, disaster management equipment availability, eSAND/Nirman token status, Revenue Officers/Offices search, DCPGMS, File/Tapal status, etc.

• LINK LINK (Land Information Network for Kerala) is a web application which could build a land information database using the physical data spread over various Revenue Offices. Database contains details of surplus land, AW land and Ajmash register.

• DC suite DCSuite is a workflow based suite of applications for the District Collectorates in Kerala. DCSuite is replicated in Kannur district after the pilot implementation in Palakkad. It contains the following features: • Touch Screen kiosk for File/Tapal status • DCSuite Services on internet (http://dcsuiteservices.nic.in) • DCSuite File/Tapal status through SMS • Connectivity to DC’s Camp office and Taluk Offices

DCPGMS Home Screen of Administrator

• Taluk Suite This is a suite of application developed in line with DCSuite for implementation in Taluk offices. The online file/Tapal transfer from DCSuite to Taluk Suite is facilitated.

• RR Online Software solution for submitting the Revenue Recovery Requisition online by various Requisition Authorities is implemented. RR Online is linked to DC*Suite and Taluk Suite.

• Other Initiatives & State/Central Projects Video VC has been enabled for VC among Revenue Officers in the district. Support for DBT, e-Hospital, e-Courts, NADRS, Jail-Court VC, MGNREGS, CONFONET, PDS and FMPDS, Real Craft, etc is being provided for the efficient implementation of these projects. The websites for various Kendriya Vidyalayas in Kannur district have been developed and maintained by NIC.

Citizen at the Touch Screen Kiosk in Collectorate, Kannur