Situated in the northwest of India, "Punjab", derives its name from Persian words 'panj,' meaning five, and 'aab,' meaning water, thereby meaning "land of five rivers". Punjab is land of one of the oldest civilizations having distinguished language, culture, food, attire, script, folklore and people. Covering just 1.54 % of the country's total geographical area, Punjab is one of the most prosperous states in the country.
Vikram Jeet Grover Punjab Correspondent grover.vikram@nic.in
Punjab, after a measured beginning, has of late taken giant strides in the arena of e-Governance by providing citizen convenience as well as streamlining process of governance with the aid of re-engineering & redefining government processes.
With well defined policies & established processes for implementing IT projects with futuristic goals; Punjab has carved a niche for itself among the most IT-savvy states in India. Aligning its objectives with NeGP, leveraging NIC's expertise, Punjab is surging ahead on the roadmap of bringing automation through IT-enabled services in the state.
Some of the major e-governance success stories are -
SUWIDHA (Single User-friendly Window Disposal Help-line for Applicants) An initiative to provide convenience to citizens by providing multi-services under one roof. The information is captured, processed and service delivered at the single window itself. SUWIDHA was ranked Topmost project among all the e-Governance projects in the country by Skoch in 2005 - 06. SUWIDHA also received excellence award from microsoft for providing convenient services to the citizens.
SIO Punjab receiving Microsoft Excellence Awards for SUWIDHA
SUWIDHA has been implemented in all the districts of Punjab. Online status of the applications submitted on SUWIDHA Counters in the districts is available on SUWIDHA website http://suwidha.nic.in. SMS-based status dissemination system has also been implemented in three districts.
E-Kiosks A touch-screen based system, implemented in 3 districts, helps in providing the status of SUWIDHA applications, Voter list, information about various schemes, Bus/Rail Time table etc. for the convenience of citizens.
PRISM (Property Registration Information System Module) PRISM automates all major activities of Sub-Registrar office and covers deeds of Sale, Mortgage, Will, Adoption, SPA, GPA, Exchange, Pattanama/ Lease, Tatima, Cancellation of SPA/GPA/Will etc. An ISO certified product, PRISM has been implemented in more than 144 SRO offices and an advanced version, with extended features and functionalities, has been implemented on BOT basis in two districts under MoCIT project.
E-Kiosks
OPA (Office Automation Procedure) A centrally developed system for automating the file movement and tracking has been implemented successfully in Finance and Planning departments.
VAHAN (Vehicle Registration System) & SARATHI (Driving License Issuance System for Transport department) VAHAN & SARATHI software, for facilitating Registration of Vehicles and Issuance of Driving Licenses respectively, have been successfully implemented at more than 30 RTO offices.
DISDIS (DIstrict Sangat Darshan Information System) A system for the automation of grievances monitoring at district level under the “Sangat Darshan” scheme of Chief Minister to reach the common man. It has been running successfully in 2 districts and shall soon be replicated in all.
DSMS (District Scheme Monitoring System) DSMS has been developed to monitor and evaluate the progress of each work/scheme sanctioned by district Planning Boards/Committee/Zila Parishads.
SSIS (Social Security Information System) SSIS enables to maintain and monitor the database of pension beneficiaries under different social security schemes disbursed through DSSOs of Department of Social Security and Women & Child Development. Replication of SSIS in the districts is underway after its successful launch at one district.
AIS (Affidavit Issuance System) AIS provides an easy access to the administration for attestation of affidavit by paying nominal fees. The photograph, purpose and other relevant details of the deponent are captured on the spot and affidavit issued. Implemented at more than 70 locations, it has been widely appreciated.
DISE (District Information System for Election) DISE is developed for duties allocation of polling staff for the election department. Some of the features are random formation of polling parties for Lok Sabha/Assembly Elections, election orders for individual parties, constituency wise distribution of employees and attendance sheet for various constituencies as per Election Commission's guidelines. DISE has also been provided to other states.
DSS (Depot Sahayak System) DSS is a system designed for Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) and incorporates functionalities such as generation and closing of waybills, ticket stock arrival and issuance, ticket box management, generation and closing of advance booking waybills, state road tax calculations and overtime calculations etc.
Arms Licenses Issuance System (ALIS) A workflow based application of Arms Licenses branch which has been implemented in all districts and integrated with SUWIDHA. Apart from License generation and history maintenance, it also tracks the applications.
Excerpt of the letter from Sh. R. I. Singh, Chief Secretary to Govt. of Punjab I am pleased to know that National Informatics Centre is bringing out a special issue of its magazine “Informatics” with focus on Punjab. Since 1988, National Informatics Centre has been working very closely with Government of Punjab for its IT initiatives in the State. It has been instrumental in developing IT culture in the Government Offices and changing the mindset of the officials. NIC has successfully helped in computerisation of Transport, Treasury, SUWIDHA, Property Registration, Arms Licensing, Election, Finance and Agriculture departments and helped the State in Web Designing and Hosting, Video Conferencing etc. NIC's regular support is the key factor of success in many of the Government initiatives in the State of Punjab. I appreciate significant contribution made by NIC.
MAREG (Marriage Registration Information System) MAREG has been conceived for automating the process of registration of marriages at district/SDM level. The application has been implemented on pilot basis and is now taken up for replication all over the state.
MARRCIS (Marriage-ability Certificate Issuance System) Implemented in all districts, it takes care of the issuance of marriage-ability certificate in addition to generation of noting, newspaper notice, generation of certificate etc.
PVSIS (Punjab Vidhan Sabha Information System) A web-based solution for Punjab assembly covers personal details of MLAs along with related information about the working of Sessions, questions asked during the session, bills and resolutions passed in the Vidhan Sabha.
Web Presence State government, CM office, Vidhan Sabha, all districts and most of the state departments have their presence on the web to empower people with an easy access to information and provide good governance.
CIPA (Common Integrated Police Application): A project of MHA to computerize and network all police stations, it aims at reduction of manual records, elimination of duplicate and inconsistent record keeping, maintenance of details of criminals, introducing transparency in the working of police, facilitating supervision by the senior officers and faster response to the public. Implementation of the software in Punjab has been initiated.
AGMARKNET (Agriculture Produce Marketing Information Network) AGMARKNET facilitates market fees collection, details of dealers, issuance of licenses to dealers etc. The state agricultural marketing boards / departments / markets collect the desired market information and pass on the same to their respective authorities and head office of DMI for onward dissemination. Market profiles of 157 APMC are also available on AGMARKNET portal.
DACNET (Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Network) It covers the directorate and field level offices under agriculture and cooperation. SARS - “Sample Analysis and Reporting System”, has been developed for analysis and reporting of pesticides in Regional Pesticide Testing Lab, Chandigarh.
CONFONET (Consumer Forums Network) CONFONET, a central project to computerize and network the entire State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions and District Consumer Fora, has been successfully implemented.
PAPMIS (Punjab Agricultural Produce Management Information System) PAPMIS, developed to computerize market committees, DMO and Mandi Board head office, covers all the operations of market committees like registration of dealers, calculation of market fee, recording of daily arrival, monitoring of sale & purchase etc. It helps the market committees to transmit the data to AGMARKNET portal as well as to DMO and Mandi Board HQs.
Immigration Check post Computerization A central project, is Implemented at Amritsar, check post with the active involvement of NIC Amritsar.
IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Project) IDSP is a central project in which NIC has provided support in setting up computer centre, VC cum training centre in the districts and state surveillance office.
ADIS (Atta Dal Information System) An ICT based solution for monitoring Atta Dal (Wheat & Pulse) Scheme, launched for distribution of food grains at subsidized rates to poor families. It includes the automation of survey conducted to identify eligible families.
ITISP (Integrated Treasuries Information System of Punjab) It is highly secure web-enabled system developed for automation of district treasuries and implemented in all Treasuries and Sub-Treasuries and linked to state headquarters covering Payments, receipts, Pension, LOC, Stamps modules.
BPIS (Budget Preparation and Information System) BPIS offers automated solution for preparing Budget for Government of Punjab. It takes care of generation of budget documents and analysis of budget based on budget documents.
Excerpt of the letter from Sh.D.S Kalha, Principal Secretary (Finance), Govt of Punjab. NIC Punjab has been working very closely with Government of Punjab for various IT Initiatives in the state for providing G2G and G2C solutions. NIC has been instrumental in bringing perceptible changes in the working of State Government as well as among the officials through its ICT based solutions. NIC has done commendable work in providing support in bringing computerisation in the department of Finance in Budget Preparation and Treasuries all over the State. NIC's regular support is the key factor of success in many of the Government initiatives in the State of Punjab. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation for the contributions made by NIC Punjab.
With many other ICT based e-governance initiatives in the kitty at various stages, there seems to be no impediment with the support of visionary leadership in the state. NIC' contributions in bringing Punjab in the forefront of e-governance, have encouraged and paved the way for many more such enterprises by state. With ICT based solutions flourishing in Punjab, it is a win-win situation for both common citizens of Punjab and the administrators.