Empowering the Masses through e-Governance
Sasaram, the administrative headquarters of the district Rohtas (Bihar) - a place of historical importance, is surrounded by Bhojpur and Buxar district in the North, by Palamu and Garwah in the South, Aurangabad and a part of Gaya in the East and by Kaimur district in the West. Famous for the Tomb of Sher Shah, built towards the middle of the sixteenth century, is the second highest tomb in India. The Ashok inscription at Chand-tan-pir on a hill near Sasaram is of historical value. The economy is mainly based on agriculture with paddy, maize, wheat & barley being the main crop. Information Technology plays a vital role in providing good governance. District Administration, Rohtas with the help of NIC has implemented many e-Governance solutions and many are in implementation phase for providing better services to the citizens. I am sure they will keep up the good work in future and make Rohtas a model city in terms of e-Governance. NIC Rohtas District center has been providing ICT services to the district administration since 1989 – the year it was established. Since then many e-Governance projects have been rolled out bringing transparency and efficiency in the administration thus providing timely services to the people. The procurement MIS, e-Vipnan, implemented in the district, proved to be a major ICT initiatives in empowering the farmers. The implementation of e-PDS was welcomed both by the beneficiaries and the district administration. e-Vipnan – a step towards clean procurement (http://onlineapp.bih.nic.in/kpc) Rohtas is the one of largest procurer of rice from farmers through ‘State Food Corporation’ and different Purchase Centres including PACS. Earlier, the purchase data was maintained manually and it was very difficult to compile & collate and there was no transparency both to the farmers and the government. To facilitate free and fair record keeping in a transparent manner an online MIS software was developed by NIC and implemented at all the 24 Purchase Centres in the district. Every purchase from the farmer is recorded in the software. The farmer details like name, photograph, purchase weight, amount of cheque along with total area and land details are captured. Steps for Procurement (including those given by PACS): • Farmer goes to Procurement Centre for issue of his token no. • He deposits the original land receipt along with amount of paddy to sell. • Purchase Centre Incharge sends this original land receipt along with other details to Circle Officer for verification. • Circle officer verifies it and issues “enforcement” for purchase. • The sequence is maintained for sending the ‘Original Land Receipt’ and other details for verification and receiving the enforcement. • After the enforcement is received and as per the token number the farmer sells his produce at the purchase centre. • A cheque is issued on the same day and photography is done along with the cheque. • “Original Land Receipt” is returned to farmer with a stamp mentioning that the produce has been purchased for this land. Every data related to purchase is made available in the public domain at district website (http://rohtas.bih.nic.in) for wider dissemination and viewing. The printouts of the data taken from the website are sent randomly to farmers for verification. The role based software has front-end in ASP.NET & the backend database is in SQL Server. district website The district website (http://rohtas.bih.nic.in) developed and hosted by NIC is one-stop source of information and provides all the information related to e-Governance activities in its ‘News & Events section’. The detail information related to history, geography, statistics and tourists places etc. are available which have been augmented with the suitable photographs. The section on latest happenings attracts the visitors often. The website developed for district court (http://dc-rohtas.bih.nic.in) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (http://rohtas.bih.nic.in/JNV) are also among the popular ones. e- pds (coupon tracking system) Earlier, it was difficult to track month wise utilization of ration, distributed through fair price shop (FPS). To track this, coupons are issued month wise /item wise to the beneficiaries for the whole year in advance. The beneficiary upon receiving his ration, submits the coupons item wise for the month to the FPS owner who in turn submits it to the Marketing Officer. Online software was developed for coupon tracking. The issued coupon number and disbursed coupon are tracked and matched. The result is made available on the web site. The dealer wise ration stock can also be checked. biometrics based attendance monitoring Timeliness is a key to productivity. To improve efficiency and time discipline in the district, a biometrics system is being established at all 19 blocks, 3 sub-divisions and district headquarters. The devices will be GPRS based system and it will transmit all the attendance data to the central server established at Data Centre. Every employee will be registered on the finger print based biometrics device. They will mark their attendance at the start and at the end of the day. The monthly salary can be calculated as per the attendance records generated through software. Besides this, NIC Rohtas is providing technical support to the district in administration in implementation of the following National & State level projects: national level projects : • e-Court – MMP Project • Vahan (Vehicle Registration / Road Tax Coolection) & Sarathi (License Issue). • NregaSoft (MIS for MNREGS) • AWAASoft (MIS for Indira Awas) • NADRS (MIS for Veterinary Department) • PriaSoft (MIS for Panchayati Raj Department) • PlanPlus (MIS for Zila Parishad) • NDAL (National Database of Arms License) state level projects : • RTPS (Right to Public Service Act) • Asset Declaration • e-PDS (PDS Coupon Tracking System) • CTMIS (Comprehensive Treasury MIS) • BISWAN (Bihar State Wide Area Network) • IWDMS