The State has taken up GIS based geo tagging survey of the electricity poles of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company to plan the route for laying optic fibre cable for the same. This will optimise the cost and time of the project V.K. Gautam, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Maharashtra speaks to EC’s Abhishek Raval
For the smart villages, how can IT be the building block?
IT Department is at the forefront of taking up ICT & IoT related interventions in the Smart Cities of Maharashtra. DIT is steering the prestigious Nagpur safe and smart city project. While doing so, it is conscious of the fact that IT has to be leveraged for the benefit of the 28000 odd Gram Panchayats in the rural areas of the State.
In Nagpur district, the CM has declared 5 Gram Panchayats- Khasala, Tarodi (Bk), Dabha, Khandala and Vihirgaon as “Smart Villages” on 1st May 2016. These villages have high speed Internet connectivity provided to them under the Bharat Net project. This high speed Internet connectivity is being used as a backbone to deliver services like e-education, telemedicine etc. which will improve the quality of services being delivered in the rural areas. e-economy can be an important driver of the rural economy.
On 15th August, we plan a massive upscaling from the initial 5 Smart villages to transform 500 Gram Panchayats of Nagpur into Smart villages.
Under the Bharat Net program, all Gram Panchayats of the State will be provided with high speed internet connectivity upto 100 MbPS by December 2018. The State has taken up GIS based geo tagging survey of the electricity poles of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company to plan the route for laying optic fibre cable for the same. This will optimise the cost and time of the project while retaining the mesh ring architecture for the sustainability and enhancement of monetisation potential of the backbone.
Also, with near universal Aadhaar coverage of the adult population in the State, IT Department intends to use Aadhaar enabled services and Direct Benefit Transfer for smarter service delivery and to eliminate leakages. The state has identified 150 such schemes which would be brought within Aadhaar based DBT fold in phases during the year.
Telemedicine initiatives
IT Department has partnered with the Health Department and JJ Hospital in Mumbai to provide a telemedicine facility in Khasala sub centre of Nagpur district. This initiative was launched by the CM on 1st May 2016.
Health Department had carried out an outreach camp in the village and identified patients who needed expert tertiary care. These patients present in the health sub centre in the village interacted with expert doctors (gynaecology, oncology) in JJ Hospital situated nearly 900 km away, using the high speed connectivity infrastructure available in the village.
The CM witnessed the telemedicine initiative live. During the telemedicine session conducted in Khasala sub centre of Nagpur district on 1st May 2016, a young 4 year old girl was diagnosed with a hole in the heart condition and was immediately referred for specialised intervention of JJ Hospital. We intend to expand this initiative to all Smart villages in the State.
What is the role of IT in magil tyala shet tal (Farm pond on demand) ?
Maharashtra launched a major campaign of construction of 50,000 Farm -ponds in the State called “Magel Tyala Shet tale” (Farm-pond on demand) to promote water conservation. This was taken up in mission mode across the State in a time bound manner.
The entire process of selection of beneficiaries (all of whom were farmers in the rural areas of the State) which was to be done on a “first come first served” principle posed a real challenge. This was addressed in a record time of less than 10 days by development of an easy to use software application with a payment gateway which was secure and robust. The application was also configured to handle the burst loads which were likely to be encountered in a first come first served model. The application was provided online as well as through the network of more than 5000 Common Service Centres across the State which farmers could access.
The software successfully received and processed around 1.5 lakh applications without any hitch. A feature of Geo tagging of the works was also included in the application where geo tagged photos were taken before starting the work & after completion. This will ensure transparency and capture the exact geographical location of the works being executed.
Cyber Security
IT Department is taking up proactive steps for setting up CERT- Maharashtra & Security Operations Centre to ensure quick and effective responses to cyber security incidents. A massive campaign for promoting cyber security awareness amongst school and college students has also been planned. This will be launched in around 10,000 schools across the State by the Chief Minister on 15th August 2016.