The State of Orissa lies on the Eastern coast of India with four of its thirteen districts lying along the coast. The State has a geographical area of 38,504 thousand acres and is surrounded by the States of West Bengal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh on its other three sides. The district of Balangir is situated in western part of Orissa. With a population of 12.13 lakh this District spreads over an area of 5,165 square kilometres.
● GENERATING AWARENESS ● INITIAL PROJECTS ● FOR SOCIAL WELFARE ● IN THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR ● IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR ● IN THE ELECTIONS
GENERATING AWARENESS It was in the year 1988 that the National Informatics Centre, Balangir District Unit started functioning. The initial challenge that lay in front of the NIC officials was to generate computer awareness. For this purpose a number of computer awareness and training programmes were conducted for the district and block level officers. Through a series of meetings and discussions with different officials at all levels, Informatics culture was developed in the District.
INITIAL PROJECTS To begin with, NIC District Unit Balangir with the whole-hearted support of the District Collector, developed and implemented a number of softwares for District Collectorate. Land Reforms being the main objective of the Revenue Administration, the Balangir District Centre developed a MIS (Management Information System) on Land Reforms. The District Centre also developed a MIS on Revenue Collection to monitor Tehsil wise monthly collection of different revenues. Monitoring System for district level 20 Point Programme and Public Grievance Monitoring System were also developed by the District Centre. In the following years, projects such as MIS on Arms Licence which builds a database on arm holder; type of arm and make; area of validation and purpose of issue, renewal date etc; System on Rainfall Statistics which records daily rainfall of all rain recording stations of the districts; Pay Roll System for State Government Staff, were developed and successfully implemented by the District Centre Balangir.
FOR SOCIAL WELFARE Working with the cause of social welfare NIC Balangir District Centre has developed and implemented projects such as Monitoring System for Integrated Child Development Scheme. The System helps in monitoring the monthly achievement in different areas of the project such as birth, health and immunization; nutrition, pre-school education as well as administration and coordination, along with the expenditure incurred on different activities of the project. The computerization of the Employment Assurance Scheme by the District Centre has been another important step towards helping the general public. Database on Micro Watersheds of the District and Rural Water Supply have been developed and implemented. The District Centre has also developed a Family wise database for people Below Poverty Line (BPL). The database consists of records of all 2,38,399 BPL families in the District with details of sex, caste and type of family. A database for the Monthly Pension Scheme has also been built to monitor the number of beneficiaries and expenditure.
IN THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR In the industrial sector, NIC Balangir District Centre has implemented projects such as Small Scale Industries Gone Into Production; Monthly Reporting of DIC (District Industries Centre); PMRY (Prime Ministers Rojgar Yojana) Monitoring System; SSI (Small Scale Industries) Census and Long Term Action Plans for DIC.
IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR In Animal Husbandry Sector the District Centre has helped in monitoring the achievements Animal Health Care: FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease); Livestock: Artificial Insemination etc. Projects such as NWPDRA (National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas): MOVIS (Movement Information system) etc, have been successfully implemented for Food Corporation of India (FCI) by the District Centre Balangir.
IN THE ELECTIONS The District Unit achievements also include computerization work for the last General Elections for Orissa Legislative Assembly and 11th Parliamentary Election in deployment of polling personnel, preparation of master plan etc.
Work in full swing at the NIC Balangir District Centre, Orissa The literacy rate of Balangir is only 38.3 percent. Therefore it was not an easy task for the District Centre to spread the computer culture in this District. The officials had to strive hard to enlighten the people regarding the importance and need of computers in today's world. It is the continuous hard work of the District Centre officials that today computers are being extensively used in the District.