The Hindu : Trial run of service counter next week

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Trial run of service counter next week

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 11. The City Corporation headquarters at Palayam is gearing up for the introduction of an e-governance system aimed at improving citizen service facilities. A front office with a computerised counter is nearing completion on the ground floor near the main entrance to the office.

The trial run for the computerised system is scheduled to be held on March 17 with the formal inauguration slated for the end of the month. The spacious lobby will have a bank of computers on the lines of the Friends Janasevana Kendram.

The flooring work in the front office has been completed while cabling is progressing. Corporation officials involved in the project said the servers and terminals would be installed soon. The front office will have seating facilities for customers with provision for air conditioning. It will also be equipped with an interactive help desk and an electronic token dispensing system for queue management.

The issue of birth and death and marriage certificates is the first application to be taken up at the computerised counter. The data entry of back records for the last five years has been completed up to January 2003 with the help of Kudumbasree units. "We are hoping to update the records up to February before the project is launched,'' an official said. The counter will have facility for all treasury transactions.

A separate entrance to the lobby has been constructed with a porch having built- in seating arrangements. The design of the lobby was taken up by the Information Kerala Mission, which also provides the software for the project.

The computer training institute run by the Corporation has already imparted basic IT skills to employees in various sections. A core team selected from these personnel are being imparted modular training by IKM to equip them for the new system.

The initial phase of the project involves computerisation of the Health and Revenue departments. The Town Planning, Engineering and General sections will be computerised later. Taken up under the Plan Campaign, the project envisages a computer network linking the headquarters at Palayam with zonal offices.

The e-governance model is expected to provide a solution to the acute staff shortage in the Corporation and tackle the administrative mess created by the merger of five suburban panchayats with the city. The 10 zonal centres are to be networked with the head office.

The system will ultimately help in monitoring of Plan projects, administration of pensions and welfare schemes, managing revenue, finance and accounts systems, public works management, handling establishment matters and community information systems at the head office and zonal centres. IKM has already prepared application packages for various functions.

The functions to be computerised include tax collection, establishment, work flow, accounts, works and decision support. The mission group at IKM has completed a work flow module for file management and tracking. Another package for registration and issue of certificates and administration of pensions and welfare schemes is ready.

The utilities include a digitised repository of legislations and other documents relevant to local bodies. All the packages are equipped with user-friendly Malayalam interface and search facility.

Corporation sources said the new system would enable automatic registration of birth and death in future when the civic body is networked to all city hospitals.

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