Oct. 30: Assam Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (Amtron) has been asked to prepare the detailed project report for the e-governance roadmap of the city under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The mission stipulates that the government must undertake certain reforms through e-governance. The objective of deploying tools and applications of information technology is to ensure transparency, quick service delivery, effective management of information and general improvement in administration.

A source said it would be better if Amtron prepares the report, as it is the state nodal agency for information technology in the state and has the necessary expertise.

Dispur has said in the memorandum of agreement signed for the mission that a few initiatives have been taken in some areas to implement e-governance.

However, there has been no significant progress because of the lack of participation by the citizens.

Altogether 40 people have been trained in e-governance at Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC).

However, none of the zonal offices of the GMC is connected either through local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN).

The GMC has also set up a website and provided some interactive facilities such as being able to download certain vital certificates, but the lack of public involvement has once again proved to be a hindrance. Moreover, the site is not updated regularly.

“The project should be prepared in such a manner that the public is involved and benefits from it,” the source said, adding that it should be ready by next year.

There is no Geographic Information System (GIS)-based map nor electronic citizen service centres, required to implement e-governance.

Under the e-governance plan, water supply connections and other utilities such as birth and death registration will be provided online.

The system would also help the GMC employees, as e-governance would include a personnel management system, where salaries and other details would be computerised.

People would also be able to obtain information regarding the status of their building plans.

Procurement and monitoring of projects would also be brought under the ambit of e-governance.

The process would facilitate the online payment of tax through the GMC website by credit or debit card and the collection of taxes through electronic kiosks.

The government would also explore the possibility of public-private partnership for different services to bring down costs.

“One hopes that the e-governance plan would lead to greater transparency in administration to benefit the people and will also help in reducing costs and the amount of workforce required,” a GMC official said.