Tech-savvy state governments have taken the e-governance route to deliver government-to-citizen (G2C) services using a Web-centric approach. But the penetration of Internet is still very low in India, especially in the smaller towns, and although it is improving it is yet to catch up with the growth of the telephone network, both mobile as well as landline. We wanted to leverage the growth of the telephone network and provide solutions to municipal corporations so that they could serve their citizens better and increase revenues. We were in search of a city / municipal corporation where we could do our preliminary study. A chance meeting with the mayor and the municipal commissioner of Visakhapatnam solved the problem for us. Both of them are tech-savvy, and were very excited at the proposal and helped us a great deal in doing the study.
After some six months of study of various municipal corporations and meeting more than 2,000 citizens and government officers from various departments, we came to the conclusion that the citizens wanted timely reminders and notifications of their’ personal information (tax dues, etc) and information pertaining to city administration, and wanted easy access to it. The citizens also wanted an effective complaint management system through which they could register their complaints without any hassle, and give effective feedback to the municipalities. We found that the citizens were facing problems of physically going to the information centres to get the relevant information they wanted from the municipal corporation. Additionally, it was also found that a citizen had to travel a minimum of three to four kilometres to reach the nearest municipal corporation centre. The study revealed that the municipal corporation of Visakhapatnam also wanted to send timely reminders and notifications, and disperse personal information (about tax dues, etc) pertaining to the citizens and city administration in an effective manner. The municipal corporation had to spend at least Rs 15 on an average to send a tax reminder to its citizens; this included stationery and postal charges. There were also delays in the delivery, which meant discomfort to the citizens and resulted in late payment of tax dues.
The implementation was a challenge
Unlike traditional e-governance projects where the intelligence is centralised, here the intelligence (information) had to reside at the edge of the network in places such as a municipal corporation or a Rajiv Internet village centre. After a study we found that as different municipalities use different databases and different data maintenance methods, it was not possible to create a generic messaging application that would work across municipalities. We therefore had to create a tool using which applications could be created. We had developed tools used to create complex messaging applications, and had sold such products to banks like HSBC. But in this case the tool had to be very simple because the user of the tool was a database administrator with rudimentary skills, while the tools we had earlier developed required a battery of programmers. Using this suite of tools that we had developed, we developed a solution called T-Governance. As the name suggests, it aims at bridging the gap between citizens and the government by letting both of them access and dispense information using the telephone.
A notification tool was developed with the aim of creating data-agnostic messaging applications for municipalities; it was done keeping in mind that it should be easy to maintain, and that even someone with rudimentary computer skills should be able to use it. Once the database structure is known, the user should be able to deploy and start the service in a single day. As the databases and the way the data is stored differ from one municipality to the other, it was decided to move the intelligence with respect to data and databases away from the core engines. With this approach, the software need not be re-programmed for every municipality; the software only needs to be re-configured from the GUI (Graphic User Interface). This greatly reduces the software maintenance cost and also the time to deliver the same. In fact, once the database structure is known, the whole system can be up and running in a couple of hours. The tool also helps the end-user create applications without any need for re-programming. For example, if the municipalities want to spread information pertaining to some new tax system, then they can just configure the software by creating the appropriate option settings, message structure to be displayed, and recording the voice prompts.
T is for tele-governance
Four major components of the T-Governance solution were created: Samacharam (an automated information retrieval process via SMS and IVRS), PrajaNadi, (an automated opinion poll system using SMS and IVRS), Dandora (an information broadcasting and alert system using SMS and IVRS), and Firyadu Kendram (an automated complaint management system using IVRS).
Through Samacharam citizens can retrieve information such as house tax, water tax, lease tax, advertisement tax, semi-bulk or bulk tax, government welfare schemes, and important telephone numbers by sending an SMS or by making a phone call to the T-Governance .
Similarly, PrajaNadi lets citizens send an SMS or call up the system and vote or give an opinion on any issue.
Dandora uses SMS and voice messages to communicate with citizens when tax payments are due or overdue. It can also send messages regarding meetings, circulars, important notifications, flood or cyclone alerts, etc.
The Firyadu Kendram system walks the citizen through a series of voice messages and his complaint is registered. An SMS is automatically sent by the system to the person designated to solve the complaint.
Easy access
Since the telephone is available at virtually every street corner of Visakhapatnam, access to the system is universal. We also found that the access charges of a telephone are substantially lower than Internet charges. Besides this, Indians are very open and comfortable using SMS—it is estimated that around 15 billion SMSs are now sent every year in India.
The T-Governance solution has resulted in the collection of dues on time. Emergency notifications have been made easy. The system is also available round the clock. It is a time- and cost-saving tool for both the municipal corporation and the citizens as they (the people) do not now need to waste time to access information—they can do it from their home, office or anywhere else.
There are now plans to install the same type of system in the municipal limits of Rajamundhry.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Abhinav Singh
Quelle/Source: Express Computers, 03.07.2006
