Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

State project for building capacity in e-governance

Roy Mathew

Proposals for Rs.5.83 crores submitted to the Centre

Proposed IT network

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Information Technology Department has submitted a three-year project for capacity-building in e-governance to the Centre for assistance. The Rs. 5.83-crore project proposes classification of ongoing and future projects into core projects, mission mode and high-priority and other initiatives.

The core projects include development of Web-based Integrated Service Gateway, Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK) and Secretariat Information System. The ongoing Akshaya Project, FRIENDS remittance centre and Information Kerala Mission are also placed in this category.

Computerisation projects of Police, Local Self-Government, Registration, Commercial Taxes, Treasury, Labour, Land Records and Transport will form the mission mode and high-priority initiatives. Other initiatives cover departments such as Cultural Affairs, Fisheries, Food and Civil Supplies, General Administration, Education, Health and Family Welfare, Industries, NORKA, Power, Public Works, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Social Welfare, Water Resources and Planning and Economic Affairs.

A State E-governance Mission Team is proposed to be formed within the IT Mission for overall programme management. Project e-governance mission teams will be responsible for carrying out projects at the department level, as per the project report prepared by Wipro Consulting.

The team will have a mix of professionals from the Government and private sector with the necessary skill sets and experience. It will directly handle file work and scrutiny of files. Separate examination of files by a conventional Secretariat set-up is not envisaged. The mission will chart the direction of e-governance growth in the State for the next three to five years. It will operate at the programme level and try to avoid getting down to project level. It is also suggested that the team be insulated from political interference. The proposals are basically aimed at aligning the State with National E-governance Plan. The Integrated Service Gateway will provide a platform for Government departments to provide information as well as service delivery to citizens. The pan-Government portal for this will be hosted centrally, while individual departments will run the services.

SPARK is a pan-Government initiative for payroll, accounting and personnel management. It has already been implemented in two departments of the Secretariat. Data entry for other departments is under way.

The much-delayed Secretariat Information System may be completed this year, providing networking of the Secretariat, Assembly, public officers and district headquarters through a wide area network. The free bandwidth for this has been available to the Government for nearly five years now from the private sector under the agreements on right of way for laying cables along PWD roads. But this was mostly idling. Though a videoconferencing system was put up last month to make use of the bandwidth, its use is expected to be only intermittent.

A state-of-the-art data centre was set up last year in Thiruvananthapuram and new ones are planned in Kochi and Kozhikode. The Thiruvananthapuram facility is under-utilised. Ambiguities and omissions in the agreement have prevented using of the bandwidth for making Internet connections available to educational institutions or Government offices, though that was also the intention at the time of signing the agreements.

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