Palakkad, the land of paddy fields and palmyras, is cynosure among Kerala's most picturesque districts. It is the gateway to Kerala from the north and is often referred to as the rice granary of Kerala. Located at the foot of Western Ghats, it is known for its rich flora and fauna. Being one of the larger districts of Kerala, Palakkad has a topography that is a blend of forest, rivers, valleys, hills etc. It is situated at almost middle of Kerala and shares border with Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu. The Silent Valley National Park is an everlasting marvel to the tourists. The abundant forest wealth, dams, wild life sanctuaries, rivers, rare birds and animals, historical monuments, traditional ayurvedic treatment centres have given Palakkad an exquisite and outstanding touch. NIC, Palakkad District Centre was established in 1988 and ever since the centre has developed and implemented at various IT projects in the district to improve the functioning of district administration and delivery of government services to the citizens.
variouS iCt initiativeS of the DiStriCt DCSuite- The Project named DCSuite for Mordenisation and computerization of District Collectorate started in 2004 as a pilot project in Palakkad District Collectorate aiming to introduce e-governance in administration and to enable to improve service delivery mechanism of the district administration. Implementation of this project has changed the face of the Collectorate with better working ambiance and paperless digital file system. Renovated Collectorate DCSuite Services site DCSuite is an integrated suite of applications covering 26 functional areas for the Collectorate. It is a web enabled solution developed using Open Source LAMP technology. E-Fileflow system is the backbone of the DCSuite and all sectoral applications modules are tightly coupled with the file movement system to generate the file and its content. All approved documents are prepared with bar code and timestamps which can be verified at any point of time. Scanning of all tapals(dak) received by post and usage of e-tapal(dak) ,e-dispatch and online tapal(dak) for inter office communication between District, Taluk and Village and other departments realised paperless office. Seamless data sharing across applications is made possible and Unicode local language support is also available. The project has been successfully implemented in the pilot District where a paperless e-Collectorate is functioning. Over 6500 file transactions takes place daily and more than 350 letters and online requests being received and processed. Service deliveries to the citizen takes place through multichannel access points like Counters, KIOSK, Internet and SMS. Services are available 247 with disaster recovery centre at Collector’s camp office. It is replicated in all other 13 districts of Kerala. The same application is replicated in the State of Goa with our support. TalukSuite - After the successful implementation of DCSuite project, an extension of this project to the Taluk - named TalukSuite is implemented. The pilot project is implemented in all 5 Taluks and 2 Special Taluks of Palakkad District. Now TalukSuite is replicated in all other 13 Districts of Kerala. VillageSuite - Now the District is implementing the VillageSuite at the lowest point of Revenue Administration, the Village Offices. By this Palakkad district becomes the first e-Revenue District in the country. The VillageSuite works in integration with DCSuite & TalukSuite. ReLIS – Revenue Land Information System is a web based open source application for online mutation and its processing in Registration, Village and Taluk Offices. Pilot implementation in 17 Villages in the district is completed and it is being replicated to villages in other Districts. e-Manal A web based Software for issuing River Sand Passes online from different counters on first come first basis. This is purely a Self sustainable Citizen centric project which makes Customer to get the Sand on Government fixed rate. The service is delivered through all Panchayats. RR On-line RR On-line is a software to enable the Requisitioning Authorities to submit their Revenue Recovery Cases from their office through Internet. The data will be available in the DCSuite, TalukSuite and VillageSuite for further action. This makes the RR activities very fast and avoids postal delays.
SuCCeSSfully iMpleMenteD projeCtS e-District e-District as a concept proposes; integrated, seamless, and online delivery of citizen services at the district level through automation of workflow, backend digitization, integration and process redesign. Palakkad district is one of the pilot districts to implement e-District. The major service categories include G2C services like issue of Certificates, Filing of RTI & Public Grievance and Request for new ration card etc. More than 1 Lakh digitally signed certificates have been issued in our district. www.edistrict.kerala.gov.in SPARK Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK) is an Integrated Personnel, Payroll and Accounts information system, through which all state Govt. Employees are getting their Payroll, Income Tax details and related services. The district has implemented this project successfully.
State level pojeCteS iMpleMenteD SMART MOVE- RTO Computerisation in all 6 offices, PEARL in all 22 Sub Registrar Offices, TetraPDS for Civil Supplies department in all 5 offices, AHEAD for Animal Husbandry Departments, Treasury Information System in all Sub Treasuries and District Treasuries. The District Centre was Involved in the Local Bodies Election and General Elections.
Central projeCtS AGMARKNET, NADRS ( National Animal Disease Reporting System), Confonet project for Consumer Court, e-Court in all Courts , PlanPlus(Pilot implementation)for BRGF Plans monitoring, MGNREGA(Pilot implementation), Forest Rights Act 2005 were successfully implemented in the District.
reCognitionS DC*Suite project received CSI-Nihilent Best Project award in 2006-2007 for its successful implementation in Palakkad District. Palakkad District received CSI-Nihilent e-District Winner Award for the year 2007-2008 for the various e-Governance initiatives in the District. This is the first time this kind of an award was constituted for a District and became the first single winner in this category. The maiden Kerala State e-Goverance Award 2008 was received by Palakkad Collectorate in the Digital File Flow category.
QUOTE: "Palakkad District has achieved greater dimensions in ICT implementations and online delivery of citizen services through CSCs ,Panchayats and Village Offices by implementing projects like e-District, DC Suite-TalukSuite-VillageSuite, e-Manal etc." - Sri. K S Srinivas IAS, Secretary (it), Kerala
QUOTE: “The DCSuite was started in the district Collectorate in 2004 as a pilot project with an aim to introduce e-governanace in administration. Subsequently we introduced TalukSuite and Village*Suite. To be frank, the e-file flow enabled us to improve service delivery mechanism of district administration to a great extent.” - Sri. K.V. Mohankumar IAS, District Collector, Palakkad