E-Gov Products and Services
Manipur: Web Enabled Monitoring of Plan Schemes
The manual system of monitoring the plan schemes operates with time lags and do not give a clear picture of funds remaining unutilized in a fiscal year. The absence of a system that could quickly provide consolidated or granular information on project retention, approval, fund utilization, financial and physical progress reports of projects, fund transfers or balances across schemes etc. was felt. This necessitated the development of a robust and reliable system using ICT tools to address various issues in monitoring the different plan schemes. The four main stake holders in the scheme are (a) DoNER (b) Planning Department, (c) Finance Department and (d) Line Departments.
Pictorial presentation of Work Flow of NLCPR
INITIATIVES
In Manipur there are more than thousand Projects at any time involving more than Rs. 1000 crores per year. Monitoring schemes of this size is a huge task in terms of time and cost overrun. This became more and more difficult with the system running on stand alone computers. In order to address the current issues, Planning Department initiated for web enabled ICT based solutions to monitor these projects in an integrated manner. It was decided to implement the scheme with NLCPR (Non Lapsable Central Pool of Resources) scheme in May, 2010. The necessary funding for development of Software was provided by Planning Department.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Sh. DS Poonia, Chief Secretary Manipur speaking at the workshop on 7 Monitoring State & Central Projects in Districts8 held on 29-07-2011 at Manipur Secretariat
After analyzing the present system, it was decided to develop a web based S/W and host it at NIC Server and implement it by making data entry by all the stake holders, except DoNER. Planning Department will make data entry for all sanctions, approvals and release of funds made by DoNER as well as submission of
Utilization Certificate, Quarterly Progress Report (UC/QPR) etc. Similarly it was envisaged that all the line departments would do data entry of their activities right from submission of DPR, receipt of funds etc to submission of UC/QPR. In short, all the required data will be made available in the server. Various reports are generated from the system which are referred by the administrative heads any time anywhere. On behalf of DoNER, Planning Department will make data entry whenever there is approval or sanction of the schemes.
SIO, Manipur demonstrate Webbased Monitoring of NLCPR scheme during the Workshop-cum-Training held on 29-07-2011 at Manipur Secretariat
Security: Three layer securities have been proposed in the system. They are:
- Layer-1: The S/W was designed with Role based authorisation with the provision of User ID and Password for (a) Administrators, (b) Data Entry Operators with CAPTCHA. The S/W prevents officials from one department to see the data for other department.
- Layer-2: OS hardening was done at the server side. SAN with ATL is also deployed.
- Layer-3: Network is also made secured with Fire Wall and IPS.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
NIC-Manipur developed the web based S/W which is hosted at NIC Server. The main activities of the departments are categorized in the table below :
Platform used for development of the S/W – The software has been developed in Java /JEE (Spring Framework) as front and PostgreSQL database under Linux OS and Apache Tomcat web server.
MAJOR BENEFITS
- 24X7 availability of data relating to project Approval, Fund Flow, Financial and Physical progress.
- Timely submission of UC/QPR Dept. to Planning Dept. and subsequently to DoNER
- Improved data exchange amongst stakeholders
- Easy tracking of fund flow details Retrieval of uploaded documents when untraceable
- Increased reporting functions Greater transparency and accountability
- Reduction of workload
The solution has been implemented in all the schemes of NLCPR in Manipur. It did not required much investment from the stake holders as it utilizes the existing infrastructure such as Manipur Secretariat LAN, SDC, SWAN, NICNET etc. ICT requirements of the main stake holders were minimal and were organized very easily. The main challenge faced was in the area of availability of data in the line departments and with the right kind of people making regular data entry. At present, the Government of Manipur has decided to fully implement the software and has issued Govt. Order to this effect. The Planning Department is also contemplating to roll out the s/w to cover all Plan Schemes such as Special Plan Assistance (SPA), North Eastern Council (NEC) and Boarder Area Development Programme (BADP) in the coming year.
L.SHARAT SINGH, Technical Assistant B, NIC Manipur
sharat.laishram[at]nic[dot]in
NIRISH WAHENGBAM, Technical Assistant B, NIC Manipur
nirish.wahengbam[at]nic[dot]in
KH RAJEN SINGH
Senior Technical Director
NIC Manipur State Unit
Room-79, Ministrial Block,
Imphal , Manipur- 795001
Ph: 0385-2461206
sio-man[at]nic[dot]in
Edited by Prashant Belwariar