eGovernance projects from non-BJP ruled states like Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka got the maximum awards during the 18th National Conference on eGovernance that was held at Mahatma Mandir in Gujarat on Friday.
By Avinash Nair
Karnataka was the only state government to receive two “Gold” awards at the event that saw 22 eGovernance Awards being presented in 12 different categories. Karnataka’s state highway development project received an award for innovative use of mobile technology, where the Congress-ruled state used three different mobile applications for work inspection, physical reporting and feedback of citizens for a 7469 km of core road network that was built at the cost of Rs 2938 crore. The state’s vehicle database management was also awarded a gold for “citizen centric service delivery through ICT”.
Similarly, Bihar government’s ‘Samvida’ project — an on-line contractual recruitment and volunteer services portal — won the Gold award for “innovative use of ICT for customer benefit.” “This project of the rural development department was introduced by Nitish Kumar and has been so successful, that 10 other departments have adopted it. Within a three-month-period, the project has helped recruit 9770 persons under three categories of Gramin Awaas Sahayak, Junior engineer and Accountant.
We had received over six lakh applications for these positions,” said Sanjay Krishna, Officer on Special Duty, who represented Bihar government at the award ceremony.
The office of the chief electoral officer of Bihar also received a silver award for “Force Deployment Software” that facilitates deployment of election machinery across 38 districts of the state.
Similarly, AGRISNET project of the Tamil Nadu government that brought about a “paradigm shift” in agriculture and helped map 72 lakh farm holdings in the state also won the gold award for “incremental innovations”. The state government-run Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd also won a silver in “innovative use of ICT by state government PSUs category”.
The government of West Bengal won two silver awards: one for Kanyashree Online 2.0 and second for e-initiatives in commercial taxes. The district collector’s office, Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir got a silver for it’s e-panchayat project which has simplified the lives of 58000 families living in the militancy affected hilly district of Reasi. The scheme caters to MGNREGA job card holders.
Among outstanding eGovernance initiative by academic and research institutions, Kerala’s St. Teresa’s College was awarded for it’s e-Jaalakam project (eGovernance literacy project).
Meanwhile, among the BJP-ruled states, Gujarat, Maharashtra and MP also bagged awards for their respective e-governance initiatives. Gujarat. The “Suraksha Setu -Safe City Surat” project of the state received a gold award for usage of technology in e-governance. The project is designed for surveillance, crime prevention and detection, post incident forensic examination, traffic management and enforcement, for providing disaster management support and pollution control measures.
The e-procurement system in Gujarat also received a silver under the incremental innovations in existing projects category. Similarly, the Chattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society received a gold for the use of GIS (Geographical Information System) in e-governance.