State steps up efforts to adopt IT in governance

Karnataka, the leading exporter of IT services, has stepped up efforts to adopt information technology in governance on a large scale. The government has initiated several steps to deliver more services electronically to citizens in urban and rural areas, governor H R Bhardwaj said here last week.

“Apart from 60 centres of Bangalore One operating in the city, 20 Karnataka One centres will be operational in the district headquarters by the end of March 2010. This programme will be scaled up in phases across the state,” he said in his address to a joint session of state legislature.

He said Karnataka State Wide Area Network has been commissioned. The value of works tendered through the e-procurement mode has risen to Rs 20,000 crore.

An initiative, which involves setting up a call centre to receive requests on Right to Information, is receiving attention. The call centre will handle requests of citizens for information and filing applications under the RTI Act. This computerised manned facilitation centre with a 24ô7 helpline will go a long way in creating an enabling environment in government’s delivery system for better governance, he said.

The other initiatives in e-governance taken by the state government like Sachivalaya Vahini, new data centre, State Citizens Portal, common service centers at the gram panchayat level among others will further enhance electronic delivery of citizen services, he said.

For the first time in the country, the state government has initiated a GIS (Global Information System) based property assessment programme in five cities on the public-private partnership model. This would enable registration of all properties and facilitate the property owners to get a clear property title. This programme would be scaled up to other cities of the state in a phased manner, Bhardwaj said.

He said the government has accorded high priority to the development of Bangalore city. The expected expenditure on works by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike or Greater Bangalore City Corporation in 2009-10 is around Rs 3,100 crore and that of Bangalore Development Authority Rs 873 crore.

Work on the Bangalore Metro was progressing rapidly from Byappanahalli to M G Road with 70 per cent of the works completed and the first phase of the project will commence operations by December 2010, he added.