E-GOVERNANCE IN HIMACHAL PRADESH: CURRENT STATUS AND WAY FORWARD
Introduction
For any state, people’s welfare is the basic tenet. In this regard delivery of public services is an indispensable factor. However, due to various constraints like low capacity of state, poor connectivity physically to far-flung areas, accessibility and availability constraints faced by people, this goal is not effectively and efficiently achieved. In the age of technology, this gap of ‘governance deficit’ regarding delivery of government services can be achieved by employing “e-Governance” as an instrument of citizen-government interface.
Electronic Governance or e-Governance can be defined as an application of information and communication technology for the delivery of government services between government-to-citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government(G2G). This process ensures that government services are delivered to citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparent method. The best aspect of this method is that it facilitates accountability and transparency especially in an era where corruption is considered as bane for equitable development of both economy and society.
In the context of India, the government initially launched National E-governance Plan (NeGP) which was later subsumed under Digital India programme aiming to permeate e-Governance in every aspect of government functioning. PPP- or public private partnership is the most common method of employing e-Governence.
Profile of the state and Sector
Himachal Pradesh, which literally translates as “snow-laden province”, is situated in Western Himalayas. The state is famous for its pristine environment, hill stations and temples. Tourism and agriculture constitutes as important aspect of state’s economy apart from hydroelectricity. Almost 90% of the population lives in rural areas. Shimla has the highest number of urban population i. e 25%.
Himachal Pradesh has one of the richest biological diversity in the country as it lies in Indian Himalayan Region. As per, Forest Survey of India report (2003), forest area constitutes 66.52%of the total area in Himachal Pradesh. Due to presence of varied climatic conditions in the state, Himachal is known as Fruit Bowl of the country with orchards being widespread. Agriculture contributes 9.4 % to the net state GDP while 90%population depends on agriculture for employment. Apple is the main cash crop of the state grown in districts of Shimla, Kinnaur, Kullu , Mandi and Chamba.
Regarding the e-Governance in Himachal Pradesh, Department of Information Technology (DoIT) is the central point of interface for setting up IT units in the state.
E- infrastructure in Himachal Pradesh
Amongst the large states, we have Tamil Nadu at the top with 118 connections per 100 population followed by Himachal Pradesh with 115 connections per 100 population . Himachal Pradesh had the highest increase of 23 percentage points. In 2014-15, Himachal Pradesh was the second highest large state (after Tamil Nadu) with a tele-density of 105 per 100 person. With 23 percentage point increase in tele-density Himachal Pradesh now ranks after Delhi in this measure.
As far as government services are concerned in Himachal Pradesh ,there are about 46 CSC per lakh population while on an average there are 10 CSC per lakh population in India. 18% of the targeted kiosks are installed. The state has also rolled out 89 e-services for citizen participation.
Review of literature and Data
SWOT Analysis/problems and prospects
Strengths
Availability of skilled manpower or knowledge workers. Availability/performance of data communication facility and availability of power supply. Educational facilities to enhancing skills in this sector.
Proximity to well- developed airports and connection to the other parts of the country is also an important aspect of building e-Governance ecosystem.
Transportation facility within the State and neighbouring States are also good.
Cost of living is low in the state.
Attitude of State Government towards the investors/new companies setting up in the State is very positive which adds to its strengths in this sector.
Weakness
Opportunities
– Effective mechanism of citizens’ grievance redressal by facilitating formal feedback system via mobile phones.
– Employee performance tracking system throughout the departments with the help of technological intervention and dependent ranking system to install reward system.
– Monitoring and satisfaction survey on various schemes.
– Media alert management system.
– Real-time monitoring of water and power supply across the state. - Creating a dashboard for showing working of the government on a single screen .
Threats
Best Practices in the sector
Suggestions for Intervention
Real Time Governance System in Himachal Pradesh
Mission Statement- Achieving 80% citizens’ satisfaction in 3 years through e-governance ecosystem.
Objectives-
– Effective mechanism of citizens’ grievance redressal by facilitating formal feedback system via mobile phones.
Employee performance tracking system throughout the departments with the help of technological intervention and dependent ranking system to install reward system.
Monitoring and satisfaction survey on various schemes.
Media alert management system.
Real-time monitoring of water and power supply across the state.
– Creating a dashboard for showing working of the government on a single screen .
Proposed Project-
Developing e-Dashboard of Chief Minister and Chief Secretary to track the progress of various schemes and projects in the state at the same time also tracking the performance of departments and employees through citizen feedback mechanism on the lines of Andhra Pradesh’s Real Time Governance (RTGS).
Functionality of the Project- Phase 1
The Functioning of the project hinges on government and citizen interface. The scope of operation can be initially limited to service delivery satisfaction.
A.Under this project, receiving the feedback and grievances of the citizen and ensuring real-time redressal, forms the tenet.
The process can visualized in the following steps-
Call Center – How does it work
With a proposed seating capacity of 100 to function 24 hrs a day and 365 days a year, the ‘Call Center, can play a key role in:
Ensuring efficient & timely redressal of Public Grievances which can be registered by the citizens through:
Direct methods:
Calling Helpline number
Reporting either at the Collector’s Office, CMO, or by online
Through “Sushaasan” Citizen App
Indirect methods:
Social Media
Print & Electronic Media
During the Out-bound Surveys (manual & IVRS) conducted by Call Center
Satisfaction Surveys & Identifying gaps in service delivery in the Government Schemes:
Out-bound IVRS Calls: To measure the satisfaction levels in the Citizens in a targeted manner, focused IVRS Calls can be made to beneficiaries of specific focus schemes and also to the sample database of all citizens is made periodically. Grievances are also raised during these IVRS Calls, if the Citizen desires so.
Out-bound manual Calls: Detailed out bound calls are made on focus schemes and specific issues to understand the service delivery gaps.
The typical Operational model of a Grievance Redressal mechanism is as follows:
Citizen reaches Helpline Number through one of the Direct / Indirect Channels listed earlier.
Upon understanding the complete information – using the back-end integration of multiple databases, the Call Center executive can quickly assign the grievance to the ‘Last Mile Functionary (LMF)’ using a pre-designed algorithm based on the Subject & Sub-Subject.
The LMF and the citizen get a message informing about the grievance number.
All Grievances are categorised into
Individual / Community
Financial / Non-Financial
Based on the category, the Grievance gets a specified timeline for resolution
The grievances are then prioritised based on the following filters:
Most Deserving
Eligible
Ineligible
Based on the priority , the LMF arranges the grievances in order and resolves.
Once the grievance is labelled as resolved, HelpLINE team calls the Citizen to enquire the satisfaction level. If the Citizen is not satisfied with the resolution, the grievance gets reopened and the entire sequence repeats
For efficient resolution of the grievances, all functionaries, HoDs, Secretaries and even the C.S. have dedicated dashboards and a Business Intelligence tool that prioritizes the grievances.
On the basis of this feedback, the idea is to create a system of rating of various government departments, government employees and local bodies. This can act as an efficient appraisal mechanism to motivate the functionaries, as on the basis of this appraisal we can devise an award and reward system. Appraisal can be done on the basis of the following criteria-
Citizen’s Feedback
Attendance
Coordination with other departments
Grievance Redressal of citizens
B. Real-Time monitoring of power and water supply schemes –
Using the technology called SCADA ( Supervisory control and data acquisition ) the real time monitoring of water supply and power supply can be done . SCADA as a technology will ensure that data regarding the production, consumption and supervision can be aligned with RTGS. And this will be reflected on the Dashboard of CM and CS.
C. Media Alert Management System
Big data analytics can be used to monitor news and incidents which require immediate response from the government to create an alert system. Like SCADA, this alert system will also be integrated with the ecosystem of RTGS. This will expand the scope of CM and CS dashboard, making it more informative.
Phase-2
As proposed earlier, the project can be expanded in a phased manner, subsuming all the government functions, schemes and project. This will ensure efficiency of delivery of services, facilitating inter-departmental coordination and prompt information gathering leading to an effective monitoring mechanism.
Refrences