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CYBERSPACE
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About Acronym
It's
easy to be dismissive about e-governance being no more than the flavour
of the month. Indeed, for the moment it is less about action and more,
it appears, about acronym. There's a land records system called prism
(Punjab Registration Information System Module), a virtual municipality
named voice (Vijayawada Online Information Centre), a multi-utility bill
paying counter termed friends (Fast Reliable Instant Efficient Service)
in Thiruvananthapuram and a general, pan-Indian recognition that e-governance
is smart (Simple Moral Accountable Responsive and Transparent).
Yet in cold,
ruthless terms
e-governance
has to set itself against three touchstones. First, that it is cost-effective
and will make enough sense, and money, for governments to invest in it.
Two, that it will actually save time and effort for ordinary people. Three,
does it offer anything to India's poor or to its villages?
Consider
the evidence. The most zealous converts to e-governance are, interestingly,
the bureaucrats in Gujarat, decidedly an old-economy state. The state
Road Transport Department's "computerised checkpost project"
has reduced corruption at the 10 octroi posts on Gujarat's borders to
"zero level" and enhanced revenue earnings from Rs 60 crore
in 1998-99 to Rs 250 crore this year. Not bad for a scheme that cost Rs
18 crore to implement.
The moment
a truck enters Gujarat its weight gets recorded on a computer and the
vehicle, number plate and all, is videographed. This audio-visual information
is instantly accessible at the central control room in Ahmedabad. No longer
is it possible for local officials to cut their own deals and record a
lower weight against a bribe. Says state Transport Commissioner P. Paneervel:
"The system is foolproof. It leaves absolutely no room for jugglery."
While octroi
receipts have quadrupled over the past year, the number of trucks entering
Gujarat has dropped 25 per cent. Corrupt truck owners tend to avoid a
state where underinvoicing is not possible. "Our work speaks for
itself," says Bimal Shah, Gujarat's IT minister and a man completely
sold on e-governance.
Shah would
find kindred souls in Thiruvananthapuram. Here, the friends counters set
up by the Kerala IT Ministry and the city municipal corporation allow
citizens to pay bills under 17 different heads-from electricity to 352
types of university examination fees.
Running
seven days a week, the friends computers are linked to those of the respective
recipients across the city. For bill payers, the alternative is queuing
up outside a dozen offices and more, some of them 25 km apart. friends
promises to turn even more friendly for, as mayor V. Sivan Kutty says,
"We propose to include facilities for airline, train and bus reservations."
In Mafipura,
a tiny village of 39 families in Dhar district of central Madhya Pradesh,
e-governance covers very basic needs. A broken hand pump meant the village
had lost its only source of water and with the block development officer
absent as usual, there was no one to complain to. Tentative residents
went to the village cyberdhaba to e-mail their complaint to the collector
at the district HQ. Two days later an engineer turned up, e-mail printout
in hand.
Mafipura
is part of an intranet called Gyandoot, a rural development project that
won Madhya Pradesh an international award earlier this year. Administered
through 32 kiosks, it has nullified the role of the lower bureaucracy.
Dhar District Collector Rajesh Rajora says, "We have now linked three
primary health centres with the district hospital. By January, we hope
to perform the first operation at a PHC through video conferencing."
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Enron
symbolises everything that's wrong with the way reforms were handled by
M/s Rao & Manmohan, says INDIA TODAY Associate Editor
