Muzaffarnagar located in the northern part of Uttar Pradesh is popularly known as ‘the Sugar Bowl of India’. With a population of 35,41,952 (Provisional fig 2001:Census) the district spreads over an area of 4049 square kilometers and has 5 tehsils, 14 blocks and 1031 villages. The economy of the district is mainly based upon agriculture & sugar industries. Sugarcane is a major cash crop and Muzaffarnagar has the largest GUD Mandi of South Asia.
NIC Muzaffarnagar - A Tough Beginning The NIC Muzaffarnagar Unit was formally set up in the year 1988 and the initial going was tough by any standards. The foremost task was to generate computer awareness among various government departments and their employees. For this purpose the District Unit backed by the wholehearted cooperation from the district administration arranged computer awareness training programs for the staff & officers of various departments. These programs covered introduction to computers, use of computers in office automation, analysis, planning and decision-making, utilities of NICNET and NICMAIL facility etc. The intense efforts soon bore fruits and the Muzaffarnagar District Centre got off to a flying start. Ever since the opening of this Centre in 1988 many projects have been accomplished successfully. All these projects can be broadly divided into three distinct categories
District Level projects which cater to the specific needs of the District Administration State Level projects which tie up the district with the state framework of development National Level projects related to the monitoring of development and welfare projects running in the district with the financial help of central government.
Some Tough IT Moves !! Lok Sabha & Assembly Election Duty Computerization: The extensive work done by the NIC Muzaffarnagar during the last Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections in UP was highly appreciated by the District Administration. An application package was developed locally to computerize some major electoral activities. It covered polling personnel duty assignment, Reserve Duty assignment, Repoll duty Assignment, Counting duty assignment and post analysis of election results. Exhibiting a commendable dedication to duty, the District center staff worked round the clock and participated in the collection of election data, timely transmission of exit poll data and election results analysis.
ALIS (Arms License Information System): Computerization of Arms Licenses is a notable project undertaken by NIC-Muzaffarnagar. The database developed contains the detailed information about the arms licenses issued/renewed. Reports can be generated Thana-wise, Tehsil-wise, Category-wise, List of expiry, Licensee wise etc. This is very user-friendly software developed at the district itself.
Rural Development Programs Monitoring: NIC-Muzaffarnagar is constantly feeding state unit with the monthly progress data of rural development schemes under Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, Indira Awas Yojana, Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS), Million Wells Scheme, Toolkit, TRYSEM, DWCRA, IRDP, DWS, Ambedkar Gaon, Improved Chullha, 20 point and data of other schemes running in the district. The Unit is also assisting CRISP software running on DRDA’s computer.
TISNIC (Treasury Computerization): Treasury Computerization is one of the major projects in which NIC Muzaffarnagar has contributed significantly since its inception. The project involves maintaining an up to date computerized record of the District Treasury. The salient feature of the system is that it is based on on-line data processing whereby all the bills are computerized before they are sent to the banks for payments.
PDSNIC (Pension Distribution System): This state level project was also successfully implemented in the treasury center. All military, education, civil, freedom fighters pensions are being disbursed timely with the help of this software. Automatic Cheque generation is a unique feature of this project.
LRC (Land Record Computerization): For this prestigious national level programme, separate land record computer center has been set up just adjacent to NIC Muzaffarnagar and the complete data entry of land records is being done in Hindi.
Payroll Package: Payroll software has been implemented in the collectorate and Treasury department. It gives all pay details of the employees and print-outs of the paybill, payslips, schedules and arrears.
Widow Pension Project: 334 cases of duplicate and bogus widow pension could be traced out with the help of computerization of widow pension scheme. The accomplishment recently made the news headlines of local newspapers. Now district administration has requested to cover all welfare pension schemes in the next phase of computerization so that bogus pensioners could be traced out.
NIC-Muzaffarnagar is also facilitating the widespread use of Census’91 and GISTNIC data to all government departments, researchers, and private users and to the common man.
Using the NICNET Effectively The NIC District Center, Muzaffarnagar has provided the NICNET communication facility to a wide variety of User Departments such as Land Records, Treasury, Agriculture, DRDA, District Judge, Information office and DIC are using the NICNET facility on regular basis. Realizing that training is an essential factor for any computerization effort, NIC Muzaffarnagar has been organizing a variety of training programmes for the District Authorities.
On The Cards NIC-Muzaffarnagar is also exploring the possibility of setting up very first Information and facilitation Counter of UP state with the help of district administration. Work is also underway for setting up a computer cell at the District Judge Court and District Election Office. GIS interface with Village development Database is also on the cards.
inside view of NIC Muzzafarnagar