Ranchi, July 28: Information technology department has launched a pilot project for e-governance in four public utility government offices of the capital — employment exchange, registration office, Ranchi Municipal Corporation and district consumer forum. If the estimated Rs 44-lakh pilot project clicks, it will be extended to the entire state.

Information technology secretary Ram Sevak Sharma said the pilot project will be completed in six months, but in three months they will be able to assess if the project can be implemented all over the state.

“Implementation of the pilot project will help the department in replicating the same in the entire state if it is successful. If it does not succeed due to any reason, the department will be saved of the trouble of investing time and money in extending the concept. We may realise in course of time that the experiment is not as useful as it was initially thought to be for the common people and, therefore, does not need be taken throughout the state,” Sharma said.

He said the most important criterion for selecting these offices for e-governance was their significant public interface. “Another reason is that they have a rule-based disposal system for public issues and hence it becomes easy to implement the e-governance projects,” he said. Another reason for starting the pilot project is that it will not need extensive backlog date entry, he said.

Benefits of e-governance in the registration office will mean availability of information on a computer, cost reduction, immediate delivery of documents, transparency and simplification of processes, Sharma said.

The corporation, which is primarily responsible for providing civic amenities will benefit a lot from computerisation while collecting taxes . Poor upkeep of records results in less than 40 per centralisation of taxes, which will improve after computerisation, Sharma said.

Computerisation will also help the corporation in expediting issuance of birth and death certificates , he said.

While providing quicker, transparent and hassle-free services, the reduced time and effort in some of the work will also help officials in devoting more time to improve the civic services, he said.

Computerisation of the district consumer forum will result in entire database relating to cases being filed on the internet so that the consumers can see their dates.

Decisions will also be uploaded on the net, along with the updated Consumer Protection Act 1986 and helpful information to the consumers, which could help them in drafting complaints and filing cases before the court, Sharma said.

An amount of Rs 3 lakh is estimated to be spent on computerisation of the district consumer court. The estimated cost of the pilot project in the employment exchange is Rs 11 lakh, while it is Rs 14 lakh for the registration office and Rs 16 lakh for the RMC.