Video Conference on

“Innovations in e-Municipalities”

Date: 29thOctober 2014 (Wednesday) from 10.30 am -01:00 pm

Organized by

Centre for Innovations in Public Systems, Hyderabad

Chairperson:Sri MVK Rao, IPS(Retd.), Director, MMP, CIPS

List of Speakers:

1.Mr. D. Vasudevan,

Senior e-Governance Advisor and Thematic Leader,

SPUR, IPE Global, New Delhi

Associated with Mr Sidharth Abbi,

Associate Vice President,

iTEC, IPE Global, New Delhi

2.Mr. SS Gaekwad,

City Engineer (e-Governance), PWD,

Nagpur Municipal Corporation,

Maharashtra.

List of participating States& UTs:

Collectors, Municipal Commissioners and Officials from Collectorate, Municipal Commissionrate, SIRD, Urban Bodies and Zilla Parishad of 30 locations of 20 states (Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi, Telangana, Tripura, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Assam, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Diu and Damon) have participated in the Video Conference.

As part of the dissemination of information relating to the replication of innovative practices CIPS has launched a major sensitization process through a series of VCs. These VCs are aimed at ensuring the participation of different states, with very little dislocation to officers as also field staff,and maximum coverage in different parts of the country.

In this process,a Video Conference was held on 29thOctober 2014 (Wednesday) on “Innovations in e-Municipalities” from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM.

Objectives of the Video Conference:

The objectives of the Video Conference are as follows

  1. To exploreand understand the best innovations in various functionaries pertaining to electronic Municipal governance in the states and encourage them to implement the initiatives in their departments.
  2. Attempt to replicate the best practices in their specific area of specialization in different locations of Indiaand also creating roadmap for the states by bringing together different stakeholders from Government departments, Institutions and organizations under the common platform and can share their experiences and grievances about the same.
  3. Map opportunity for implementing these innovative practices in the States and UT’s to disseminate success stories.

Welcome by Director, MMP, CIPS

Director, MMP, CIPS welcomed the speakers and the participantsfor the Video Conference on “Innovations in e-Municipalities”.

He also introduced Mission Mode Projects to the participants as well shared the purpose of the Video Conference on e-Municipalities. He suggested/UT’s should look at the possible replication of the best practices in e-Municipalities in order to bring good governance in the country.

First presentation was “Innovations in e-Municipalities – e-Municipality in Bihar”byMr. D. Vasudevan,Senior e-Governance Advisor and Thematic Leader, SPUR, IPE Global associated with Mr. Sidharth Abbi, Associate Vice President, iTEC, IPE Global, New Delhi.

Mr. Vasudevan is a senior e-Governance Expert with an experience of more than 35 years in the IT and e-Governance sector. Being an international technology expert, he has vast experience in the ICT4D domain and has worked across counties like Afghanistan, Denmark, Germany, India, Tanzania, Mongolia and Mozambique for both government agencies and multi-lateral as well as bilateral donor agencies such as DFID, European Union, World Bank to name a few.Currently, working with IPE Global Private Limited, he is engaged as a Municipal IT and e-Governance Expert under the DFID funded Strengthening performance of Urban Reforms Project leading the overall e-Governance component under the project.

Mr.Vasudevan is responsible for the Project Management, Technical Assistance, IT Advisory services to the Department of Urban Development and Housing covering the entire spectrum of Municipal Governance, procurement, installation and commissioning of Hardware and Software required for staging the e-Municipality solution in the State Data Centre, Commissioning of a Payment Gateway,Training, Hand holding and Change Management.

Heintroduced the concept of e-Municipality in Bihar, an effort of the Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Bihar to adopt the principles of e-Governance and use of ICT in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the systems and processes of Urban Local Bodies in Bihar and enhancing citizen services.

He discussed the scope of the work is to develop the state level e-Governance road map for ULBs in Bihar, vendor selection, project management and implementation support for e-Municipalities (a Mission Mode project under NeGP) across 141 ULBs of Bihar, Data center set up and computerisation of ULBs and Providing software development and implementation support for Urban MIS (physical and financial progress monitoring system), property tax and rental application, grievance redressal system, birth and death registration system, etc.

The IPE Global support for e-Governance reforms as a Project Management Consultant, under SPUR, has been acknowledged at the national level and won accolades including “Order of Merit” SMART Governance Award (SKOCH Awards 2013) and eINDIA Awards 2013.

He shared the e-Governance modules that has been covered under this project includesBirth and Death Registration System, Property Tax Information & Management System, Building Plan Approval and Regulations, Registration and Licensing System, Rent, Lease and Sairat Management System, Advertising & Hoardings Management, Right to Information Management System, Complaints Management System (CFC), Water Supply and Sewerage Information, Solid Waste Management, Land and Estate Management, Health and Sanitation Information, Q&A of Legislative Assembly, Slum Management Information System, Knowledge Management System, Development Sector Schemes Management Information System, Works Management System, Personnel Management System, General Administration System, Audit Information System, IT Support (HELP DESK) System, Legal Information System, Stores Management System and Workflow & Document Management System.

He shared the geographical coverage of the project in Bihar that the project covers the whole state of Bihar viz., all the 141 ULBs in all 36 districts.He briefed the role of the implementation agencies of the project. He told that Project Owner (Purchaser) is Secretary, Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Bihar. Project Management Consultants support Program for Urban Reforms IPE Global Pvt. Ltd. ABM Knowledge ware Limited, Dreamline Technologies Pvt Ltd are the Implementation Consultants [Software Development Agency].

He said that there is Project Monitoring Mechanism for implementing and monitoring the project. He also explained the mechanism of the project monitoring including structural hierarchy. He shared the functionalities in compliance of GoI, MoUD design document as well technical features in compliance of MIT, GoI. guidelines for e-Gov projects. He briefed the three tier Architecture of the model. The special features of the model include Unicode and UID compliant and it is highly parameterized. The future perspective of the project / model is to STQC certified as well to integrate with the GIS.

The model is to bringtransparency and time bound delivery for best practices. The model includesmultiple delivery channels viz., web portal, cyber CFC, Citizen Facilitation Center (CFC), mobile phone and SMS. He explained the backend processing system which is an objective scrutiny based application processing. The process has tight integration of the backend workflow with CFC based operations.

Mr. Vasudevan shared the issues and challenges encountered during the delivery of the services under this project. He told that low computer literacy level at ULBs other than large municipal corporations, poor IT infrastructure and availability of internet bandwidth, shortage of human resources at ULBs and Change Management [resistance to change and automation] are some of the issues faced in this project. But however the problems could able to overcome through some innovative alternative solutions like bridging the gap of low computer penetration and internet accessibility and for this Patna Municipal Corporation has enrolled the Cyber Cafes where public can access the SAS application for a pre-defined fee.Since collection of ULB specific data was from 141 ULBs was a challenge a central data collection workshop was conducted spread over a week. To tackle the issue of manpower shortage at ULBs, trained manpower was posted from the project even prior to commissioning the project.

He shared the results achieved so far which are as follows:

•Phenomenal success in the Property Tax Self Assessment System [SAS]

•Collection of ₹. 4.50 Cr property tax through online system

•Identification of large number of missing properties through GIS base map and door to door property survey

•GIS based house numbering system

Central Grievance Redressal System, Vigilance Case Monitoring System, Trade Licenses Management System, Establishment of a dedicated MIS cell for the UDHD of Bihar, Capacity building of ULBs and IT Infrastructure to ULBs are some of the ITinterventions other than the discussed above which are explained by Mr. Vasudevan.

He explained the salient features and uses of CGRS (Common Geographic Reference System). According to him the CGRS is not only a uniform platform to register citizens’ grievances and give feedback and linked to timelines as per the Citizen Charter for ULBs but also a well-defined escalation matrix for non adherence to defined timelines for grievance redress. The other features includes that it holds SMS gateway integration for information to citizens and field officials as well centralized set-up to economize costs and simplify procedures.

The Awards and Achievements of the project so far are - The Property Tax Project, Biharwas adorned with the Public Choice Award under Usage of ICT in Urban Development of e-India Awards 2013. Centralized Grievance Redressal System ofUDHDhas qualified in the India`s Best in as Skoch order of Merit in the Skoch Summit 2013.

He also stated that they have done GIS Property Survey for house number plate fixation and he showed paper clippings about this survey.Some snapshots of the work being carried out at various sitesin Patna Municipal Corporationwere also showed to the participants.

Discussions and the issues raised by participating States:

Mrs. Jayalakshmiwhile commending the efforts being made by Mr. Vasudevan sought to know how the major issues are being sort out that different municipalities in different states have different functions. Was there any diversity forlooking at reforms to get uniform in all ULBs for this project?

Mr. Vasudevan mentioned that infact they support programmes for urban reforms. The project is owned by the Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Bihar which is responsible for controlling 141 ULBs of Bihar. The consultants of all the ULBs are sharing the differences with theUrban Development & Housing Departmentand the department is taking care of these issues.The policies are uniform and the implementation issues are maintained by the department.

Mr. Abhishek Kachhara, IAS from 2003 batch, Municipal Commissioner, Agartalahas shared that they have master plan of services much more similar as this model in concern to water, electricity,property tax, etc. and soon they are going to start online portal. They have GIS support systemas well. But because of themassiveland records and bulky land databases, the Internet portal data is not tallying with actual data bases. The GIS land data supports top viewonly and the side view of G plus 4/3/2/1 needs physical verification by surveyors. He also further added that he would like to know the funding management for toll free number and the details of SMS cost.

Mr. Vasudevansuggested that he needs additional resources required forfunds allocation and management. In case of Bihar, the economy is achieved by centralizing the entire state. Further he added that from DFID they have some funds, income from citizen centric services and centralization made to overcome this problem. Initially they also faced the problem for managing SMS cost and overcome with centralized economy and other funds allocation.

Mr. MVK Rao introduced Mr. Gowri Sankar, Capacity Enhancement Specialist & Project Manager (Suvidha), Andhra Pradesh Municipal Development Project and said that Mr.Gowri Sankar who has vast experience in Common Service Centers in Andhra Pradesh would give support information. Mr.Gowri Sankar told that CDAC provides free SMS service and get the details about the registration from their website.He inquired Mr. Vasudevan that what the total budget isallocated for the e-Governance project in Bihar and whether the total e-Governance solution is implemented in all the 141 ULBs in Bihar. He further enquired that whether this is centralized or decentralized system and online building planning approval system is fully automated system such as auto DCR and whether is it completely developed by APM Knowledge ware.

Mr. Vasudevan said that the total budget allocation for the project is 55 crores, out of which 28 crores are from DFID funded SPUR program, 14 crores are from JuNNRM and the remaining funds are allotted by the State Government. As far as the implementation system is concerned it is centralized which uses state level software system. He said that all the 141 ULBs are covered but in terms of softwarefor the modules concerned there would be customization for specific ULB. The program is still in progress. As far as the online building planning approval system concerned it is not fully automated but most of the citizen side processes are automated. Backend process cannot be automated but monitoring and approval systems can be automated.

Mr. Akshay said that already SMS gateway of CDAC is using efficiently by the enforce department of Tripura. Further he enquired whether all the records are digitized as national land records modernisation program and is there any way catching or utilizing the existing database in their e-Municipality program.

Mr. Vasudevan replied that they have been tasked by Patna Municipal Corporation and it depends on level of information or the data required by municipalities and infact the datais much more required by Municipalities than the existing database. They purchased smart phones and take photographs from the smart phones and upload in their systems. Even Police department of Patna are using the GIS data of this model. GIS leads only base map creation and it is not sufficient for Municipal administration but there should be surveys. Over all it needs to be two phases to use GIS technology.

Itanagar Municipal Councilsaid that they have just completed one year and they are not doing much in this. They have some issues like funds problem, manage the transport to clean the garbage, etc. Even they are facing the difficulty in implementation because of terrain area. He showed interest in house numbering module and he would like to know the information pertaining to house numbering.

Mr. MVK Rao in support to the Itanagar Municipal Council asked Mr. Vasudevan whether he can share anything related to Solid Waste Management from his innovation. Mr. Vasudevan told that he is not expertise in that domain and it has been cleared by the expert of his team. The Director, MMP requested to provide inputs for the five day intensive training program to be held on e-Municipalities from 1st December to 5th December 2014 at YASHADA, Pune, Maharashtra.

Agartala Municipal Corporation further said that they got three awards including Skoch award for Solid Waste Management this year. They got appreciation for best practices in transport and disposal mechanism. He invited Itanagar Mayor to Agartala Municipal Corporation to see and understand the best practices and innovations of their department.

The Director, MMP asked Mr. Vasudevan whether the Bihar project includes any Solid or Garbage disposal system. Mr. Vasudevan told that it is available in this project but this area is covered by another domain expert of his team.Mrs. Jayalakshmi raised few questions to Mr. Vasudevan that whether the Government officer orders issued as part of reforms is placed in website and if so what kind of office orders that they keep online for public purpose. She also asked whether in all 141 ULBs they include any cantonment board. Mr. Vasudevan replied that not only Government orders, everything is placed online through e-doc system.They maintain transparency in allaspects. He said that there are no cantonment boards for ULBS.

The Director thanked Mr. Vasudevan for the presentation made and invited Mr. Sanjay Gaikwad, City Engineer, Nagpur Municipal Corporation to present on innovations in Nagpur Municipal Corporation.Mr. Sanjay Gaikwad started presenting “Comprehensive and Integrated Municipal e-Governance (ERP Suite) in Nagpur Municipal Corporation“after introducing him by the Director, MMP.Heinitiated the session with his experience of working with Municipal Corporation of Nagpur.

He explained the overall objectives as well as key objectives of the e-Governance (ERP Suite) project. The overall objectives are to empower the citizen, strengthen the city’s economy and transform city’s neighborhoods by providing ubiquitous Internet access throughout the city; to create a digital infrastructure for Internet access and to help citizens, businesses, schools, and community & organizations to make effective use of internet technology to achieve their goals, to ensure better economic growth, immediate health care access, rich variety of knowledge, speedier disaster response, hassle-free interactions and to provide e-Governance interfaces of the Government and provide instant connectivity to the world through Internet. The key objectives are specific to concentrate on citizen centric services to improve effectiveness and efficiency as well as accountability and transparency. He viewed the details of project metadata and project approvals including budgetary details. The project cost approved by GB of NMC for all 61 modules was 2335 lakhs which holds partly Central, State as well as ULB share. They provided training for 5290 licensed users.