While the unprecedented situation due to Corona Virus and lockdown was fought in the frontline by the Medical, Police and related fraternities, it challenged the local administrations to revisit and redesign working modalities and it fell on Digital technology to play its part.
NIC Odisha along with thirty district Centers continued Information Technology support to administrations in critical areas of Health, Rural Development, Labour, Home, General Administration, Rapid Response Civil supplies and Law enforcement. With expertise in Digital Technology real-time support in training, surveillance, quarantine, contact tracing, hospital management etc were extended thus digitally empowering district administration and the public in this time of need sometimes going beyond the call of duty.
While NIC HQ led the development mission for Aarogya Setu, it’s district offices continued support to the administrative machinery with its awareness and training workshops for registration and RT-PCR mobile App for collecting and sending samples/reports to ICMR. Support was extended for Online Recruitment of Senior Residents at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, Online Counseling for the appointment of 158 Ayurvedic Doctors by H & FW Department, Odisha.
Video Conferencing and SMS Facility NIC’s VC facility was extensively leveraged by District Administration with Hon’ble Chief Minister and Cabinet ministers inaugurating COVID-19 Hospitals at Angul and Nabarangpur Districts. Most of the essential service departments used the VC facility for coordination, administration and decision making during this critical period. Quick SMS facility of NIC was leveraged as an awareness measure.
ePass Ganjam district became the first to introduce ePass to be granted by the Collector and District Magistrate towards movement during the lockdown on ServicePlus platform of NIC. The applications for Temporary Medical Camp (TMC) Management and Grievances monitoring system were implemented to mitigate the woes of the migrants.
Work from Home Work from Home became a new normal and applications such as eOffice providing virtual digital workplace came much to the rescue of district administrations. eOffice was first implemented during the period at Jagatsinghpur district with the integration of all sections of District Collectorate and all offices up to Tehsil level facilitating the online transfer of files much to the help of administration during the period. Other districts like Kalahandi, Angul, Sundergarh also joined the same as a need during the period.
DAMPS (Disaster Assistance Monitoring & Payment System) DAMPS project was implemented along with extensive training to district officials as a measure of Disaster Assistance to the beneficiaries. eShramik Application has been extended to all DLO/ALO offices of the Labour Commissioner for disbursement of Covid Special Finance Assistance to about 21 lakh Registered Building Construction workers.
eAbkari/ e- Retailing As the State was scrambling to augment supply and manufacturing of Sanitizers and movement was restricted during the current crisis, NOC Module under eAbkari Project of Excise department was implemented to facilitate obtaining Online NOC for spirit / ENA (Extra Neutral Alcohol) by the manufacturers. e-Retailing Module for home delivery of liquor by 578 numbers of “ON” and 1081 numbers of “OFF” Excise licensees during lockdown was implemented under OSBCL (Odisha State Beverages Corporation Ltd.).
Support over IVFRT project was extended for registration of Foreigners staying in Hotels, Educational Institutions i.e. updation of C-Form for Hotel / Lodge / Dharmasala and S-Form for Educational Institutions.
Horticulture Produce Marketing Web Portal Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Odisha, inaugurated the web portal “Horticulture produce marketing” (https://odihortmarketing.nic.in for rendering services to farmers, traders and wholesalers of horticultural produce. To overcome the distress sale like situation, Agriculture & FE Department unveiled the web portal through which Horticulture officers will enter the available surplus quantity of the individuals produce farmer wise and trader (In & Out of state) will directly contact to Govt Officer for bulk procurement.
As the fight against the unseen enemy seems a long haul and the pandemic continues to leave its scar, Scientists of NIC Odisha continue their support to the administration as the Silent front-line warriors of NIC carrying on their duty diligently.