Urban Devp Min plans computerisation of civic body records

"Local government is the first interface between citizens and government. Our initiative will solve a number of problems that the people in towns and cities are facing due to rapid urbanisation," a senior ministry official said.

The project on e-governance aims to provide a public interface for improved service delivery of all records pertaining to municipalities, decentralization, better information management and transparency.

It will also ensure involvement of citizens, improved interaction between local governments and people as well as other stake-holders like Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs).

Officials said initially the scheme would be a part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for 35 cities with a population of over 10 lakh and a new Centrally-sponsored scheme for other cities and towns would be taken up after studying its implementation under JNNURM.

Guidelines on e-governance in municipalities were prepared and circulated to states and urban local bodies for submission of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs).
States were also asked to discuss issues on implementation of e-governance and to expedite DPRs preparation.

So far, the ministry has approved over half a dozen projects on e-governance in several civic bodies including in Nagpur, Vijayawada, Kochi, Pune, Navi Mumbai and Ulhasnagar.