E-Governance

The vision for this project is to create a knowledge-based society through extensive use of I.T. as a medium for effective interaction between the Administration and the public so that exchange of information and access to government departments is speedy and easy, leading to a better quality of life. The objectives of this project are:

• Provide hassle free one-stop solution to the citizen.
• Minimize multiple interaction points for the citizen and hence reducing the wastage of their valuable time.
• Provide better turn around time in receipt, processing and issue of services.
• Transparency in delivery of services.

Project Sampark is a Department of IT (DIT) initiative for the development, integration and maintenance of web-portal for various departments of the Administration for providing 'One-stop-shop' for 16 G2C services through 8 e-Sampark Centre. It not only provides the Online Transaction Processing through its centres and web-enabled portal but also is a major source of information dissemination.

Before this initiative the common man had to make multiple visits for a single transaction apart from standing in long queues and wait for a few days to few weeks for the end result. At times he had to face harassment due to lack of transparency.

After this initiative the Administration was successful in providing a one stop solution at the e-Sampark Centres as various services, which were available earlier at independent islands and sometimes resulted in duplication of work, are being delivered at these centres. The processing time has been minimized as the efficiency of the service delivery system has been optimized by making it I.T. enabled thereby regarding eradicating the long queues and waiting hours for the public.

• One stop solution to citizen for multiple tasks, resulting in eradication of frustration to the common man as he had to deal with many functionaries.
• Reduction of wastage of time of a citizen as multiple tasks are being performed at these Centres.
• Citizen Centric Centres having state of the art facilities, apart from central location
• 8 am to 8 pm service on all days except Sundays
• Better turn around in receipt, processing and issue of services
• Transparency in delivery of services
• Easy maintenance of MIS leading to quick reconciliation of Treasury collections.

The project is so designed that any citizen centric service of any criticality can be provided through it. The criteria for making new services available through the eSampark centres is based on the requirement generated by citizens which is available through the feedback received and the citizen satisfaction surveys conducted. Departmental initiative is also taken into account and then an interface for the department is provided to initiate the services. It is given due publicity by way of audio coverage, pamphlets and notices. Department is also given an access to the central database for monitoring the progress and generate various MIS reports. From 11 services of 7 departments the project has graduated to provide 16 services through 3 delivery channels apart from increasing the number of counters from 3 Centres (12 counters) to 8 Centres (32 Counters). It can also be replicated because of the robust nature of technology involved and wide array of services that it can provide.

• 15 G2C and 3 B2C Services are being provided at 8 Centres spread across the City.
• Construction of 9th Centre is under progress.
• Since launch in Sept. 2004, Rs 408 Crores of Government revenue has been collected in 19.26 Lakh transactions.
• Number of transactions have touched 1.25 lakh transactions per month.
• Rs. 126 Cr of revenue collected in first 4 months of 2006-07 compared to Rs. 36 Cr for the same period in 2005-06.
• Select private services are also being launched to make the project self sustainable. Phone bills of Connect and Spice are being collected and more similar services are under process of initiation.
• Sampark Services are also being extended to Gram Sampark Programme where 17 Gram Sampark Centres are being constructed covering all the UT Villages.
• Jan Sampark Services from these Centres are also being provided for information and facilitation services to the citizens including registration of grievances and applications under Right to Information. 70 such Centres are being planned apart from extension of these services to 17 Gram Sampark Centres also.

All Procedures and Forms for all departments, which are frequently used by a common man e.g How to apply for a birth/death certificate including procedure for late entry, how to lodge a FIR, various forms and procedures concerning public offices such as RLA, Estate Office, DC Office, Municipal Corporation, Engineering Wing etc.
Education and Health related information services e.g daily updated information regarding availability of blood in Blood Bank of Govt Medical Hospital, Exam Results, Information about availability of educational and health related facilities in each sector etc.
Transport and Tourism related inquiries e.g Bus Routes, information relating to tourism activities etc.
Inquiries relating to Passport status; Railway booking status, Train timings etc.
Providing access to all Government websites.
Other information like utility services available in each sector etc.
These services are provided free of cost except when the citizen needs any print out, the same is available at a nominal cost per page of print out.

The citizens will also be able to submit their grievances relating to any department at these Centres. NIC has created a Grievance Monitoring System under which, whenever any grievance is received at the Jan Sampark centre, the same will be scanned and forwarded via email immediately to the Nodal Officer of every department who has been specially appointed for the Jan Sampark services. The hard copy of the grievance submitted by the citizen will also be sent to the Nodal Officer of the concerned Department. A time line would be given to the concerned Nodal Officer for the redressal of the grievance and under this Grievance Monitoring System, the Head of Department would also be able to monitor the redressal of grievances online.

On the lines of the receipt of the Grievances, a provision has also been made for the submission of applications under the RTI at the Jan Sampark Centres alongwith the statutory fee in the form of a Demand draft or Indian Postal Order. All such applications will be received and the same will be delivered to the Central Public Information Officer of the concerned Department the same day. The applications will be received at the Jan Sampark Centres with the prescribed fee of Rs 10/- per application in the form of DD or IPO in the name of the concerned Department from which the information has been sought, and the application alongwith the fee will be forwarded to the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the concerned Department and it will be his duty to reply directly to the citizen alongwith the desired information required by him, as per the RTI Act. If any further amount needs to be paid by the applicant, it would be the duty of the CPIO to request for additional fee (as per requirement) from the applicant directly and also the CPIO would reply to the applicant directly apart from filing the Action Taken Report in the RTI Application System created by NIC.

The Jan Sampark Centre would only be providing the facilitation services for the receipt of RTI applications so that a common man does not need to visit each and every office. The responsibility of submitting the information sought by the applicant will be of the CPIO of the concerned department who will ensure that the information is supplied to the applicant as per the provisions of the RTI Act.

The e- Jan Sampark services are being available from e-Jan Sampark kiosk in Sector 20 and the e-Jan Sampark services will also be available from the Sampark Centres situated in Sector 10, 15, 18, 23, 43, 47 Industrial Area and Mani Majra.

The other sites in Phase I which have been identified for setting up of e- Jan Sampark Services are listed below, where work would start shortly.

- Sector 9
- Sector 11
- Sector 17
- Sector 22
- Sector 32
- Sector 35
- Sector 38
- Sector 40
- Sector 45

The remaining Sectors in Chandigarh will also be covered by the establishment of similar e-Jan Sampark Centres after the completion of sites in Phase I. These Services will also be available in all the UT Villages from the Gram Sampark Centres, which are likely to be launched in October 2006.

• Government Services closer to the citizen.
• Giving substance to Right to Information Act.
• Better information dissemination.
• Transparency & efficiency in government-citizen interface.
• Life simpler for the common man.
• Financially self sustainable model for information delivery free of cost to the common man.