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Volume 20 No. 3, January 2012

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From the States/UTs

Chandigarh : Participatory, Accessible and Efficient Governance

NIC Chandigarh UT Unit was setup in 1990 in the office of Deputy Commissioner and currently has its offices at 3 locations. In last 21 years it has contributed significantly in various ICT related activities. NIC has been instrumental is successfully running various e-Governance projects, Chandigarh SWAN was commissioned 2 years ago and departments have been able to reap the benefits of connectivity by way of using centralized applications and information interchange, Network Data Centre is being looked after by NIC which is manned 24*7 and has provided 99.9% uptime, e-mail, internet and VC services have been extended practically to each and every individual which are being made full use of by them.

Well understanding the importance of technology, need of the hour and the expectations of the users, efforts have been made to keep pace with the technological advancements and deliver standardized products.

Chandigarh Portal: The portal http://chandigarh.gov.in is a testament of Administration’s focus on transparency & proactive approach towards taking it to the comforts of the homes of the citizens so as to reduce their legwork. The portal harnesses content from across the various departments of Chandigarh Administration. Although, the primary driver for the development of this solution was the need to have a single point of access for information of Chandigarh Administration, this portal has now become its face.

GePNIC: eProcurement solution, https://etenders.chd.nic.in/, was suc- cessfully deployed for all departments of Chandigarh Administration wef April 2010 for Tenders above 10 lakhs. It has been widely acclaimed and is now implemented for tenders of all values. Efficient use of technology has been showcased in this application to ensure safety and security. Non-discrimination among bidders, access of tender documents by any bidder & bid submission from their place of convenience are the factors for keen acceptance of the solution. It has also promoted open competition. NIC Chennai is rendering much needed support for its successful implementation. In the current financial year more than 4100 tenders amounting to over 1000 crores have been processed.

NETWORK SUPPORT

National Knowledge Network (NKN) Hub: NIC Chandigarh has provided connectivity under NKN Project to IIT Roop Nagar, IMTECH Chandigarh, Panjab University Chandigarh, NDRI Karnal, CDAC Mohali. PGIMER Chandigarh, PEC University of Technology Chandigarh, Government Medical College & Hospital Sector 32, NIT Jalandhar, CSIO Chandigarh, NITTRE Chandigarh, CCET Chandigarh, IISER Mohali, NIPER Mohali, NABI Mohali, PAU Ludhiana , Dental College & SGTB Hospital & College Amritsar, DWRI Karnal and many other institutes in the region are in pipeline.

Regional Network Centre: In 2003, Leased Line network was commissioned connecting all NIC offices (Punjab, Haryana & Chandigarh) in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Haryana Assembly, etc. Subsequently it has been extended to Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Mumbai, all districts of Punjab and Haryana, Punjab Raj Bhawan and SPIC Centre. In addition to it, MLLN connectivity to different central government offices - Passport Office, Census, NCRB, Department of Post, DGFT, Environment and Forest, UID, ROC, CGHS etc is also through. The backbone bandwidth for NICNET/Internet access from this centre to New Delhi has been significantly strengthened with 2.5 Gbps link from Railtel and 1 Gbps standby link from PGCIL.

Chandigarh SWAN: NIC was assigned the task of setting up Chandigarh State Wide Area Network (SWAN), a project funded by Department of Information Technology (Option II). All the major buildings and eSampark/ eJanSampark/ GramSampark Centres are now connected. There are 7 PoPs namely UT Secretariat-SHQ, Municipal Corporation, Deputy Commissioner Office, Sub Divisional Magistrate(South), Sub Divisional Magistrate(East), Government Medical College and Hospital Sector 32, Government Multi-Specialty Hospital Sector 16 & Registration & Licensing Authority identified under SWAN which are connected to the Network Data Centre and are fully operational. Chandigarh Administration has extended SWAN to many departments from State Hqrs and POPs. Manpower for maintenance and support services under the project has been deployed on all the PoPs and State Headquarters site. NIC is providing 24x7x365 services to all PoPs and SWAN sites.

It has facilitated the implementation of eGovernance projects as the reach has been widened. It has become equally easy to disseminate information across various offices and has resulted in adoption of standardized approach by all departments.

State Data Centre (SDC): Chandigarh Administration decided to use the existing NIC Chandigarh Network & Data Centre (NDC), established in 2004, as State Data Centre. The same site is being used as State Headquarter site under SWAN and NKN Project, thus all the major buildings/ departments are connected to Data Centre.

The NDC is equipped with state of art infrastructure to facilitate e- Governance initiatives of Chandigarh Administration as well as to cater to diverse computing and networking requirements of the government. A state of art high capacity (10 TB) storage area network (SAN) is also set up in NDC to provide consolidated storage infrastructure for Intranet Applications, Citizens Services, eGovernance applications, Databases, E-mail and other internet services. The NDC is operational on 24x7x365 basis and also remains manned by technical persons to respond to any kind of requirement. All the major buildings, Citizen centric centres (viz. eSampark, Jan Sampark and eGram Sampark) are also connected to the NDC through high speed channels to provide efficient services. The applications are hosted on varied platform having different backend databases to give multiple hosting environments.

Intranet Portal of Chandigarh Administration:A significant initiative was undertaken to have a one-stop access point for various G2G and G2E related services. SWAN, centralized SDC and the IT vision of Chandigarh Administration served as the driving force in successfully integrating the various applications – common and department specific.

Most of the departments/offices across the city access the applications through the portal http://admser.chd.nic.in.in. User accounts of employees are maintained in common database where it is authenticated and access provided as per assigned roles. The access is also limited to valid domains. On successful login, the selected application is made available to the user. Some of the applications are –

• Common applications: General Financial Accounting System, Meeting Manager, Court Cases Monitoring System, File Monitoring System, Visitor's Information System, Government Tenders and quotations
• Department specific: Public Relations, General Financial Accounting System, Integrated Scheme & Budget monitoring, Project Monitoring System, Grievances Monitoring System, NIC UT Portal, Passport/Public Window File Updation.

eSampark, eJan Sampark and Gram Sampark: The much acclaimed and successful eSampark project of Chandigarh Administration was launched in September 2004, as a “Multi Service Single Window convenience”, to bring various services under one window. Starting with 11 services from 3 centres it has emerged as a key revenue mop-up agent now. A footfall of over 2 lakh transactions is being recorded per month and it has accounted for revenue collection of over 800 crore in 20010-11. At present, 23 G2C and 5 B2C services are being provided at 11 eSampark centers spread all over the city. Replicating the success in UT villages, as many as 13 Gram Sampark centers have already been established. All eSampark services were being provided at Gram Sampark centers free of cost to the villagers. Residents have the convenience to submit RTI applications and grievances at these centres and also seek appointments for Government Medical College and Hospital and Government Multi Specialty Hospital.

Smart Card based Public Distribution System (SCbPDS): In 2008-09 budget, Finance Minister Sh. P. Chidambram announced Chandigarh as one of the pilots to implement SCbPDS to bring more transparency in the distribution of ration and to streamline procedures related to PDS to ensure reach of benefits to the intended group of citizens. An approval of Rs. 6 Crores was granted by the Govt. of India.

The project was rolled out in June 2010 and it takes care of all the ensuing processes right from allocation to the disbursement of commodities at FPS. A KMS enabled Smart Ration Card with the beneficiary and a PoS Terminal integrated with weigh bridge and connected to central server through GPRS and with the FPS owner’s Smart Card at the FPS makes the transaction happen and biometrics authentication ensures that the commodity is delivered to the intended beneficiary. At present data digitization has been completed, biometrics capturing is nearing completion and commodities are being issued through this solution at 13 FPS and the remaining shall soon be covered. Some of the benefits accrued are Improvised service delivery, Transparency and effectiveness in PDS, Proper allocation and distribution monitoring, Plug leakages in PDS, Remove bogus/multiple ration card and Convenience & consumer contentment.

Government Financial Accounting System (GFAS): GFAS, implemented on 1st April 2011, has resulted in integrating the Budget and the Treasury operations, which till now were running in silos. Hosted on central server in NIC NDC and accessible through Intranet portal, it is used by all offices/Boards and Corporations. Allocation of budget by Finance department, preparation of bill by DDO, presentation of bill to treasury, approval/rejection based on funds available etc are some of the activities carried out using this system. It facilitates making available the latest figures at any given time. Online availability of data helps in knowing about the available funds, expenditure status and the receipts.

It also makes account, cheque and vouchers reconciliation very easy. A robust MIS supports variety of reports catering to day to day requirements of various offices. As a next step forward, facility of e-Payment has been initiated for crediting salary of employees and shall subsequently cover all kind of transactions.

SARATHI and VAHAN (Transport Department): Smart card based Key Management System (KMS) enabled Driving Licences and Registration Certificates (both Transport and Non Transport) are being provided to the residents of Chandigarh. The test for Learner’s Licence is also computer aided. Data consolidation to form State register and National register has also been accomplished. High Security Registration Plate module has also been integrated in VAHAN to record the details. The application is now running from 4 locations (RLA office, SDM(S), SDM(E) and STA) over Chandigarh SWAN thus bringing in lot of convenience to public and the staff. National Permits for goods vehicles are being generated through the Permits portal.

Industrial Tribunal & Labour Court: A centralised solution developed for the court to manage and keep track of the cases has become an integral part of their day to day working. All reports are generated through the system and queries regarding case status, case history, decided/disposed cases etc are easily responded. Manual intervention has been totally eliminated and access to information and retrieval is very fast.

Prevention of Food Adulteration (Food Licencing): The Food Safety Act includes rules and regulations for the registration and licensing of premises used or proposed to be used for the purposes of a food business. The application has been developed and implemented to streamline the food licensing process of the Administration. Workflow based application covers the complete process of food licensing which starts from accepting the license application with fee including penalty and late fee, giving receipt to the applicant and ends at the delivery of the license to the applicant. An effective monitoring and reporting mechanism assists the enforcement staff.

There are many other projects running successfully in various departments for the last many years for which technical support is being provided as and when required eg. Chandigarh Transport Undertaking, Excise and Taxation, Property Registration, Education etc.

Services are rendered to various National Level Projects viz: Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA), Counseling for admissions to engineering colleges, Immigration, Visa and Foreigner Registration Tracking, Online Scholarship Management System, Election MIS, Socio Economic Caste Census, Mother and Child Tracking System, eGranthalaya, CONFONET, AISES

Video Conferencing: A fully fledged VC studio is established and regular VC sessions are conducted for the benefit of various departments of Chandigarh Administration.

Websites: More than 40 websites of various departments of Chandigarh Administration have been developed, hosted and are being maintained. User departments are provided adequate training on the maintenance of the sites and also explained the importance of a well maintained site.

Internet &Email - it’s the basic service that is being availed by all departments/ offices who have been encouraged to put it to maximum use. More and more offices are being provided official email accounts, thus facilitating faster and reliable communication amongst each other. Internet services are efficiently monitored on 24x7x365 basis to ensure uninterrupted services. Over last 5 years 99.9% uptime has been ensured.

Recognition –

• National Golden Icon Award for e- Sampark.
• National Silver Icon Award for Best Government Website
• CSI-Nihilent Best e-Governed State/UT Award.
• Continuously Ranked as a LEADER in “India: e-Readiness Assessment Report”

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AJAY RAMPAL, State Informatics Officer, NIC Chandigarh
ajay.rampal[at]nic[dot]in



VIVEK VERMA, Regional Editor, NIC Chandigarh
vivek.verma[at]nic[dot]in

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