Vikram Aditya
Port Blair, Sept 3: Even as the country is racing towards modernisation and going the e-way, wait for administrative approval continues for the Port Blair Municipal Council for implementing the e-governance project to provide citizen-centric services to the city population. The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) includes introduction of e-governance under mandatory reforms of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and the e-governance in municipal bodies aim at providing quick, efficient and transparent services to citizens at affordable cost to realize the basic needs of the common man.
According to reliable sources, the PBMC started the process for implementing e-governance scheme for the benefit of the city about 4 years ago. Despite the Council bettering substantially in sectors like sanitation, water supply etc
E-governance online PBMC services, bureaucratic hurdles continue impede the implementation of the e-governance project. “It’s now 5 years that the file pertaining to the e-governance scheme has been doing the rounds in the Secretariat. Every time the file reaches the administrative headquarters, top bureaucrats mark a series of queries on the file for one or the other reason. The e-governance file has almost cleared all ways except for the concurrence of the Secretariat,” says a PBMC official requesting anonymity.
“Modernisation has become an integral part of today’s life. The introduction of Common Service Centres have benefitted the common man a lot as tasks related to many government agencies are executed quickly at the doorsteps of the residents. However, the PBMC still remains an exception. Hundreds of people can be seen lined up at the PBMC office to get their works done on a daily basis. People are forced to adopt the manual way in today’s digital world. Writing various types of applications, running from chamber to chamber for early approvals etc is the method of PBMC operation. The general public feel harassed at the PBMC and expects the Council to implement the e-governance scheme at the earliest,” lament some residents of Aberdeen Bazar.
The Chairman, PBMC, K Ganeshan told Andaman Sheekha that the Council is striving to implement the e-governance scheme to provide services to citizens at their doorsteps. “The initiative was taken about 4 years ago. However, certain approval issues have been delaying the process of implementation. Besides various other forums, the issue was also raised during the recently held 5th State Planning Board Meeting which was attended by all senior bureaucrats, Heads of Municipal and ZIlla Parishad and PRI agencies. The Lt. Governor, during the meeting, directed officials to expedite approvals so that tenders could be floated for implementation of the project. I expect that the approval of the administration would be obtained in the next few days after which the PBMC will invite proposals for eligible players for implementation of the scheme,” said Ganeshan.
