Panchayatiraj introduces e-despatch of letters

To avoid communication gap and delay in despatch of letters from the state head quarter to different destinations in the state, the state Panchayatiraj department has introduced the e-despatch system.

The new system generates auto letter number and assigns address and mode of despatch for each letter. Then each letter and its attachments are scanned and saved in PDF format in a network data base.

A domain specialist attaches each and every letter to the corresponding scheme after which the letters are sent to the recipients by fax, e-mail, web posting (e-space) and AMS automatically in real processes without human intervention.

“The e-despatch system has been introduced for the first time in Orissa by the Panchayatiraj department. The officials at the block, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) and the collectors are being communicated through e-mail using the intranet of the department”, R N Dash, secretary, Panchayatiraj department told Business Standard. He said, the copy of all the letters issued by the department will be available in the website for 3 years and is available for anyone to see. The department has tied up with the state owned telecom operator BSNL to provide broadband connectivity in all the block headquarters.

Talking on the advantages of the system, Dash said, all the correspondence are in the public domain and archiving of all letters will be done to facilitate future reference. While letters can be downloaded in printable format all the internal users have been given user ID or password to view the status of the despatched communication.

Steps have been taken to intimate the concerned officers about the despatched letter in real time through SMS. He said, it was found that on an average each letter takes nearly 3 hours from start to reach the despatch section. While the despatch section takes about 5 hours to despatch the letters on the same day, this duration increases to 20 hours if the letter is sent to the despatch section after 2 pm.

Besides, there was no guarantee that the letter despatched has reached the recipients.