Right after being sworn in as the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis announced his intentions to make delivery of services through various government agencies an effortless and hassle-free process for citizens by introducing a Right to Services Act.
By Manasi Phadke
But the seeds of change in the manner in which citizens can get their work done at different government offices were sown much earlier when major agencies decided to embrace information technology for better governance.
Buttressing a process that began in 2013, the year that’s ending saw government agencies adopt methods by which several transactions such as payment of bills, applications, registration of complaints, tracking of application status, licenses, approvals for construction and so on can be done without the hitherto cumbersome queuing up. Many agencies also embraced technology simply for a better connect with citizens.
There’s still a long way to go to make government services available at a click, but the changes in the year that were indeed optimistic beginnings:
Payment of bills, registrations and applications The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the backbone of the city, already had a functional citizens’ services website where one could download various kinds of forms, register complaints and even track applications.
In 2014, it took another step by initiating a process for payment of bills and many other services at the convenience of a single click by deciding to move from eGovernance to mGovernance (mobile governance). In August, the civic body launched a MCGM 24/7 mobile application for Android-based platforms. S V R Srinivas, Additional Municipal Commissioner, said, “Today, an estimated 14 lakh people in the city use smartphones and the number is only expected to grow. So, we decided to tap this medium to improve governance.”
At present, MCGM 24/7 is useful mostly for payment of water bills with a payment gateway of 72 to 74 banks. The BMC is working on introducing features such as payment of property tax, application for and renewal of licenses by eateries, shops and other establishments and registering complaints in the mobile application.
“Our aim is to also make services such as applying for birth and death certificates and registrations online,” Srinivas said. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), too, set the ball rolling for digitising the process of construction proposals, requests for modifications to structures and its scrutiny within minutes, based on the development plan of the area.
“At present, architects and developers have to make trips to the MMRDA office and submit building plans, which are then manually scrutinised by employees of the development authority, leaving scope for corruption and personal interpretations of development plans,” an official said. Availability of information At present, getting information from the BMC even through a Right To Information (RTI) application is a daunting task with files dating more than thirty years ago stacked haphazardly in the labyrinths of its head office and ward offices.
This year, the civic body decided to set this right. It cleared an 80-crore proposal for the scanning and digitisation of all documents and creating a document management system within the next five years. With this, any citizen can access information from the cloud with a user key, which will be shared in case of RTI applications.
Also, a couple of months before it launched the MCGM 24/7 app, the BMC rolled out one more mobile application, critical for Mumbai citizens – Mumbai Monsoon. With this application, users can check the temperature, humidity, wind speed and information on tides that will indicate if Mumbai’s roads are likely to turn into a shallow pool. Ease in transport In a city known for one of the best public transport networks in India complete with buses, suburban railway, auto-rickshaws and taxis, the city’s first Metro corridor that was launched in June, revolutionised customer service in this space. Not only does the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro have a well-staffed call centre, but from Day 1, the Metro operator also started its own Twitter handle.
On this, commuters can directly tweet and queries get answered, or complaints registered. For instance, once a commuter tweeted at the Mumbai Metro operator asking what was the yellow line that the public announcement system at stations kept asking the commuters to not cross for reasons of safety.
Swiftly, the operator tweeted back, explaining the location of this yellow line. Another time, Gurudath Baliga, a Twitter user, complained to the Metro operator, saying, “Used Metro for the first time. You lose all the time you gain in going to Ghatkopar in the ticket queue.
” Within a day, he received a reply advising the use of Metro smartcards. Recharging of these cards is now available online too. Moreover, commuters can work on the go with Metro stations equipped with wi-fi connectivity. Security and policing The Government Railway Police for the first time experimented with social networking to improve policing on the city’s lifeline – the suburban railway system. It launched its own Facebook page so that commuters could post complaints (not to be substitutes for First Information Reports) and write or post images of incidents on the train.
