Bhubaneswar, July 5: Used to making notes with pen all his life, 51-year-old Chandrakant Mishra initially resented the switch to the computers when the rural development department decided to do all its work online.
But thanks to a refresher course and his two computer-savvy sons, the struggle is over. The middle-aged section officer can now deal with files online with consummate ease.
Mishra is not the only one to have overcome digital hiccups as the state government gears up for a complete overhaul of the work culture by introducing what has popularly come to be known as e-governance. “When we were first introduced to computers, many of were scared of touching the mouse. It was a strange feeling. But that phase is well and truly behind us,” said another official of the department, who did not want to be named.
The rural development department is the first department to have completely digitalised its working under the Orissa Secretariat Workflow Automation System (Oswas), which has been implemented at a cost of Rs 22 crore.
The stacks of files sitting on tables and wooden racks, a normal sight in government offices, are absent in the rural development department. “When I was first told that we will be doing all work online, I was apprehensive. I had not even worked on typewriters till then. But now I laugh at my apprehensions,” said Mishra.
The younger staff, however, find the job much easier. “It’s easier to locate a file or a letter apart from getting background material on any subject,” said Sanjib Kumar Mishra, 40, another employee of the department. The peons feel relieved as well. “We no longer have to carry the files from one section to another,” said Narendra Behera, 57.
“Ours is the first department to become paperless in the secretariat. This has reduced 50 per cent work load in terms of issuing of letters and 100 per cent in file processing,” said rural development secretary S.N. Tripathi, adding that around 3,780 files containing over 2.23 lakh pages and 11,982 letters had been scanned and uploaded on the department’s computer system.
Once a letter is received at the diary section, it is scanned and stored in the computer and then sent online to the concerned section for processing. The file ultimately reaches the secretary online for the final order. The draft order is sent back to subordinate officials online. If the order is confined within the department, the file is closed but if it needs to be sent to the field staff, it is sent to the e-despatch desk for online transmission.
“Earlier, it used to take at least seven days to process a file. Now it’s done within minutes,” said Tripathi. The same sentiments were echoed by Priyadarshi Mohapatra, deputy secretary in charge of Oswas, who said while efficiency levels had gone up, the cost of work slipped significantly.
Information technology secretary M.S. Padhi said the success of rural development department would have a rub-off effect on departments where the work culture would change as well. Padhi said the system had been made partially operational in some other departments such as finance, revenue and disaster management and panchayati raj. “The work in the IT department is in its advanced stage of completion and is expected to be fully operational by the end of this month,” he said.
Though the state government is going gaga over the e-governance project, there is also a flip side to it. There are allegations of e-based schemes getting disrupted at times because of server problems and other technical snags.
The working of the e-municipality programme in 44 urban local bodies was disrupted for a few days following a glitch in the server room of the Odisha Computer Application Centre, the technical directorate of the IT department.
However, Padhi said there would be no problems in the working of Oswas since its server was installed at the Secreatariat’s IT centre. “A dedicated generator set is also going to be installed soon for uninterrupted power supply,” he said.
