Essay on Vigilance and E-Governance

Essay on Vigilance and E-Governance

CONTENTS

1. What is Vigilance?

2. What is E-Governance?

3. What is E-Governance?

4. E Governance Plans:

5. Online Delivery of Land Titles in Karnataka, India

6. Computerized Interstate Check Posts in Gujarat

7. Online Indian Railway Train Status and reservation System:

8. Work Progress Monitoring System:

9. Conclusion:

What is Vigilance?

A very simple meaning of vigilance is watchfulness or to bring awareness. But here when we are talking about vigilance, it means we are talking about how to fight against corruption .corruption includes misuse of power, money and misuse of government property etc. we want to bring corruption at zero level. This can be ensured by watchfulness, caution and vigilance or we can say in others words it can be achieved by E governance. Because E governance provide access to information to empower citizens, enable their participation in government and enhance the awareness, watchfulness or vigilance.

What is E-Governance?

It is the use of various modern Information and Communication Technologies such as Internet, Local Area Networks, mobiles etc. by Government to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, service delivery, promote democracy and minimize the corruption. Or we can say e Governance means electronic controllership and electronic management.

E- Governance Plans:

As we now vigilance is required for ensuring the effective, proper and corruption- less functioning of any private, public or government organization/group/individual. For same purpose government has implemented various online services under National E-Governance Plans.

Following are the examples of online service under National E-Governance Plan Income Tax

A. Central Excise

B. Passport/VISA

C. Road Transport

D. Property Registration

E. Pensions

F. Gram Panchayats (Rural)

G. Agriculture

H. Municipalities

I. Employment Exchange

J. Land Records

K. Company Affairs

L. Police

M. Railway Reservation

N. E-Courts

Here we will discuss some examples and we will see how they are proven effective tools of vigilance for not only fighting against corruption but also improving effectiveness, efficiency and comfortness of public.

Online Delivery of Land Titles in Karnataka, India

Previously(i.e. Before the computerization of The Department of Revenue in Karnataka), farmers had to seek out the Village Accountant to get a copy of the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) -- a document needed for many tasks such as obtaining bank loans. There were delays and harassment. Bribes had to be paid.

Land owners find it difficult to access the Village Accountant, as his duties entail traveling. The time taken by Village Accountants to provide RTCs has ranged from 3 to 30 days depending upon the importance of the record for the farmer and the size of the bribe. A typical bribe for a certificate could range from Rs.100 to Rs.2000. If some details were to be written in an ambiguous fashion, out of selfish motives, the bribe could go up to Rs.10,000. Land records in the custody of Village Accountant were not open for public scrutiny.

But Now (i.e. after the computerization of The Department of Revenue in Karnataka) for a fee of Rs.15, a printed copy of the RTC can be obtained online at computerized land record kiosks (Bhoomi centers) in 140 taluk offices. Without delaying and any bribe.

The Bhoomi software incorporates the bio-logon metrics system, which authenticates all users of the software using their fingerprint. A log is maintained of all transactions in a session. This makes an officer accountable for his decisions and actions. The government also has plans to web-enable the database to make available to the farmer a copy of the land record locally through an Internet kiosk -- although without signature such a copy will only have an informative value.

This scheme also useful for preventing lands-scam Due to availability of all the data related to land is at a common server.

Computerized Interstate Check Posts in Gujarat

Gujarat has an extensive road network, which carries a large volume of commercial traffic. Major highway systems link Dehli to Mumbai and provide the principal link to the Kandla sea port on Gujarat's west coast. Gujarat's 10 check posts are positioned at the border with three neighboring Indian states. Nearly 25,000 transport vehicles enter daily through these check posts.

Trucking companies want to maximize their earnings from each vehicle. Often this has prompted transporters to load their trucks beyond permissible axle load, creating a serious safety hazard.

Previously (i.e. before the computerization), a suspect vehicle is flagged to a stop, and then weighed on a weigh bridge located away from traffic. The legal penalty for overload is Rs 2,000 per ton. However, any fine often has been (illegally) negotiated

The problem of corruption was particularly difficult to attack as the corrupt were backed by politicians. In the absence of any systematic inspection of vehicles, the transport companies also adopted various illegal practices. Duplicate copies of a single registration book from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) have been used for many different vehicles, using fake license plates.

In the computerized process, all the check posts are monitored at a central location using video cameras installed at every check post cabin. The video camera captures the registration number of all trucks approaching the check post. (There are flood-lights and traffic lights which make the check posts appear like a runway at night.) Software converts the video image of the registration number to a digital form and the details of the truck are accessed from a central data base. An electronic weigh bridge captures the weight and the computer issues a demand note for fine, automatically.

Through the use of computers and other electronic devices at 10 remote interstate border check posts in Gujarat, India, a team of savvy public officials have reduced corruption and significantly increased the state's tax revenue.

Online Indian Railway Train Status and reservation System:

Before the computerization system it was very difficult to know the availability of seat and getting reservation without paying additional money. Passenger has to pay additional money inside the train also.

But after computerization availability of seat are known to all also passenger can himself book ticket online, it reduces the money handling (dealing) in other words we can say its reducing the corruption. Also auto up gradation of passenger tickets increases the revenue to Indian railways and decreases the additional income (bribe) to TTC.

Work Progress Monitoring System:

This software is intensively used in all type of industry to monitor the work progress of company/ section/ individual. This is not directly relate with money corruption but it is dealing with monitoring corruption which include delaying of projects/works which leads to increase hidden cost of company also leads to inefficient work.

Conclusion:

Now we can say vigilance and e governance are complementary to each other.

To prevent or minimize the corruption we have to have transparent system which can be achieve by deploying E-governance in all sector and everywhere.

But the biggest challenge of deploying e-governance is not technology but change management. Change management is important not only in terms of cultural change but also in terms of changing operations and processes workflow that the automated environment will introduce.

"E-governance, however, is not really the use of IT in governance but as a tool to ensure good governance. E-governance does not mean proliferation of computers and accessories; it is basically a political decision which calls for discipline, attitudinal change in officers and employees, and massive government process re-engineering