Ministry of Power is using mobile application ‘Garv’ for monitoring the progress of PM Modi’s ambitious rural electrification project and presenting itself for highest level of scrutiny and transparency
Recently when Mohd Sadiq called his home to enquire about the well-being of the family from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he works with a private construction firm, he casually asked his younger brother “Any progress on village electrification” To which his brother replied, “The village is on the list and work is under progress, even he can have close watch at the development by merely downloading a mobile application called Garv App. Recalling the many attempts made by people of Bela under Parihar block in Sitamarhi district of Bihar, for getting electric pole erected, Sadiq said, “We tried hard, in fact at times villagers contributed money to get at least electric pole erected privately but failed due to lethargic bureaucracy and corruption. Therefore, for us, an idea of seeing progress step by step on a mobile application is a pleasant surprise.”
In his 69th Independence Day speech on August 15, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, announced 18,500 villages which still have no electricity would be electrified within the next 1,000 days. To ensure transparency and providing real time information about the project, the ministry of power launched a mobile application – Grameen Vidyutikaran App (Garv App) – last year in October. The application provides the status of electrification along with photographs of the electrical infrastructure with GPS co-ordinates and allow citizens to adopt a village, district or state for monitoring the progress. After adoption, they get notification, if there is any change in the progress of adopted area. Similarly, district magistrate and discom officials can also track the progress disrtict-wise and state-wise.
How it has happened? Basically after the Prime Minister announced it in his speech, the nodal ministry – ministry of power – entrusted the task to one of its corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) as nodal agency for monitoring of the project in mission mode to achieve the target within time. Accordingly, REC Power Distribution Company Ltd. (RECPDCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of REC, appointed 309 Gram Vidyut Abhiyantas (GVAs), a young rural electrification engineers, at block and district level across the country to transparently monitor the progress. On an average 25-30 villages have been assigned to a GVA for monitoring and each GVA has to visit around 5-8 villages per week depending upon the geographic location. In order to assist the GVAs in ensuring transparency and expedite the electrification work, a mobile application “Garv” was launched.
The mobile application enables GVAs to update photographs of the electrical infrastructure along with GPS co-ordinates during their visit for monitoring the progress of electrification and map it with pre-defined milestones. As most of the un-electrified villages lack proper network connectivity, so it has been ensure that data can also be captured in ‘offline mode’ and get synced with the server after returning to network area. “This facilitates monitoring based on clearly defined targets, better coordination and resolution of implementation issues, enhanced transparency and helps disseminate information to all citizens,” S C Garg, Additional CEO, Power Distribution Company Limited (RECPDCL) told FE.
The Mobile app provides a dashboard, which gives an overview of the electrification status of the 18452 un-electrified villages of the country. It displays the number of milestones achieved, status of the progress state-wise, district-wise and village-wise. One can even track the names of contractors implementing the projects in any un-electrified village , date of award of project at the village level, number of villages visited till date by GVAs, visits undertaken in last seven days, villages electrified in past four weeks etc. “The app also has a feedback and suggestion link in the dashboard by which anyone can post suggestions and highlight the issue related to electrification of villages. The same is being responded within 24 hours and visit of the village is being arranged within a week. This assists in immediate resolution of the issues,” says Garg.
As per the latest figure on dashboard, so far over 7000 villages have been electrified and about 10000 yet to be electrified. Recently, some of the media reports highlighted discrepancy in the corporation claims about few villages which is un-electrified, yet has been counted as electrified on the app. The senior official says that they rely on the data provided by the state governments, however now it is mandatory for GVAs to verify electrified villages before counting them. He added that sole idea of using mobile application and dashboard is to present ourselves for highest level of scrutiny and transparency.
The promise to electrify village is not new. In fact, the goal of complete electrification was first stated by the Rajadhyaksha committee on power in 1978 which envisaged that by 1994-95 all villages should be targeted to be electrified and all households by 2000. Thereafter same goal was reiterated by NDA and UPA to provide power for all by 2009 and by 2012 respectively. However, using technology for involving everyone in the process for ensuring accountability, transparency and timeliness is new. Perhaps, that is why the application has been downloaded by more than 10000 people and Prime Minister has also appreciated the work not only in Indian Parliament but also lauded it during his address to British Parliament and more recently in Brussels, while addressing the Indian community.