Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in his talk to SRCC students on Wednesday insisted on need for pro-people, good governance (P2G2) model. He would do well to send across the same message to his party colleagues in Delhi. The BJP-ruled municipal corporations in Delhi have failed to work beyond 15 per cent of the installed capacity of e-governance in its six-year tenure. Insiders blame this on sabotage from within as e-governance would bring with it transparency in civic services.
In a written reply to the standing committee of South MCD, the Information Technology department, which is common for all the three municipal bodies, has accepted that only 15 per cent modules of the online services were in working condition. The IT department has so far spent over Rs 50 crore on e-governance plan. The corporation had announced its march towards e-governance way back in 2003, when Congress was in power, with the launch of its interactive website and a detailed project for e-governance was re-launched in 2008, when BJP came to power.
‘Hardly 20 per cent employees of the corporation use e-governance modules,’ said Punkaj Gupta, Chief Director of IT. Earlier, the department was headed by a doctor, who was posted there on the pretext of starting health information system. The project failed to take off and most of the work is being done manually.
In its approach paper for e-governance in 2008, the department has planned to develop the software of 75 applications for 38 departments of the corporation but so far only 58 modules have been uploaded on the website. However, Gupta claims that most of the uploaded modules are in working condition but not being used by officials. ‘We can ask the vendor to update the modules only on the basis of feedback of users but as most of the online public services and administrative applications are lying idle we are helpless,’ added Gupta. Most of the work was supposed to be paperless. In response to an RTI, the department has provided a list of 34 services for citizens and 43 services for information but most of them are white elephants.
In a written reply to the standing committee of South MCD, the Information Technology department, which is common for all the three municipal bodies, has accepted that only 15 per cent modules of the online services were in working condition. The IT department has so far spent over Rs 50 crore on e-governance plan. The corporation had announced its march towards e-governance way back in 2003, when Congress was in power, with the launch of its interactive website and a detailed project for e-governance was re-launched in 2008, when BJP came to power.
‘Hardly 20 per cent employees of the corporation use e-governance modules,’ said Punkaj Gupta, Chief Director of IT. Earlier, the department was headed by a doctor, who was posted there on the pretext of starting health information system. The project failed to take off and most of the work is being done manually.
In its approach paper for e-governance in 2008, the department has planned to develop the software of 75 applications for 38 departments of the corporation but so far only 58 modules have been uploaded on the website. However, Gupta claims that most of the uploaded modules are in working condition but not being used by officials. ‘We can ask the vendor to update the modules only on the basis of feedback of users but as most of the online public services and administrative applications are lying idle we are helpless,’ added Gupta. Most of the work was supposed to be paperless. In response to an RTI, the department has provided a list of 34 services for citizens and 43 services for information but most of them are white elephants.