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BELLANDUR
VILLAGE LOGS ON TO SUCCESS
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UNITED
NATIONS LAUDS GRAMA PANCHAYAT’S E-GOVERNANCE STRIDES
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Courtesy Times Of India, January 17, 2002
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At
a time when e-governance in India remains
mired in red-tape and rhetoric, here is
a unique project deployed at Bellandur
Panchayath, 25Km from Bangalore, that has
been hailed by the United Nations as “an
ideal e-governance project”.
In a commendation letter, Kim Hak-Su,
Executive Secretary of Social Commission
for Asia and Pacific, said he was pleased
to see the enormous advances on the e-governance
front made in Bellandur grama panchayath.
Impressed by the work, Kim Hak-Su himself
visited Bellandur in August last year.
Over 10,000 people in 2,500 households
across five villages under Bellandur grama
panchayath benefit from the project. It
issues computer generated birth and death
certificates, property certificates, tax
assessments, demand notices and water
bills to the residents. Moreover, it has
employed a full-time engineer to update
and maintain the system on a daily basis.
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The
government will need to invest about
Rs 14,750 crore during the Tenth Plan
period for e-governance and IT applications
to penetrate the usage of information
technology in administration.
A report by the working group on
IT for the Tenth Plan (2002-07)
said central sector schemes involving
MPs, central government staff, paramilitary
and defence forces will have an
outlay of Rs 2,500 crore to usher
in IT-led internal and defence security.
The report seeks to set up a National
Information Infrastructure for e-governance
at an investment of RS 1,500 crore
to extend it to the block level for
bringing in e-governance to the grassroots
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The
villages under e-governance include Bellandur,
Ambalipura, Devarabisanhalli, Harllur
and Kariamnana Agrahar.
Says Jaganath, the man behind the project
and grama panchayat president: “Our e-governance
project is an initiative taken by the
local people. The foundation stone for
the project was laid when the villages
pooled in Rs 70,000 to buy a computer
for the Grama Panchayat office.”
“We happened to get information that the
Bellandur Grama Panchayat had bought a
computer to replace its typewriter. Grabbing
the opportunity, we offered to develop
the application free of charge as a pilot.”
Recalls Subramanya R. Jois, CEO of COMPUSOL,
an IT solutions company, which installed
the project.
When approached, Jaganath was more than
willing. His cooperation enabled COMPUSOL
to understand the system with office staff
and conduct the business model and requirement
gathering. By early 2000, it demonstrated
a prototype to the Grama Panchayat.
According to Jaganath, computerization
of the governance procedures has helped
the village panchayat to cut the workload
by 70 per cent. On the other hand, the
tax collection process was simplified
and the Panchayat had a record Rs 1 crore
tax collection last year from a mere Rs
14 lakh in 1999.
Also in the pipeline is a plan to electronically
interlink the village with the block administration.
This will help in the speedier exchange
of government data thereby rooting out
middlemen and corruption.
Seeing the progress made at Bellandur
Grama Panchayat, U.R.Sabhapathi, MLA,
introduced COMPUSOL in Udupi Taluk Panchayat
and City Municipal Council to set up a
similar project there.
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