eINDIA Summit SINDHUDURG write up · eINDIA Governance Summit 2013 eOffice Sindhudurg, Maharashtra...

eINDIA Governance Summit 2013 eOffice Sindhudurg, Maharashtra

Nomination for Best G2G IT Initiative of the Year By: Virendra Singh, IAS

eOffice Sindhudurg

Virendra Singh, IAS

An Insight into the Less Paper Governance

A model for Future Government Offices

Introduction

Sindhudurg District is located in the heavenly abode of Western Ghats bounded by the mighty

Sahayadri Ranges in the east, Arabian Sea to the west, the state of Goa and Karnataka to the south and

Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in the north. The District has a predominance of rural population and

more than 90% of the population lives in villages and hamlets dotting the Western Ghats and the

coastline. It would be noteworthy that it is the only district in Maharashtra wherein the District

Headquarter is located in a Gram Panchayat.

The prime concern for the administration is speedy service delivery to the citizens in a reliable

and transparent manner, as also the equitable development of the entire district. With this aim in mind the

effective use of Information Technology was the best tool available to provide services as well as to plan

and monitor the developmental process. The use of Information technology was the only solution to end

the inordinate delays which were inherent in the system and the direct consequence or ill effects were on

the citizen. To achieve better service delivery and end the drudgery for both citizens and the employees a

an integrated approach for backend office automation was followed which would ensure better

monitoring and control over the service delivery.

This approach not only improved the harmony between the administration and the people but

facilitated close monitoring, better planning by reaching the unreached, firsthand knowledge of the Gaps

in development, creating an enabling mechanism to reach out and a strong IT infrastructure for effective

monitoring and delivery of services. With the approach followed now the administration is much closer

to the citizens and the entire Business Process Reengineering at the back end has made the service

delivery transparent and assured. The interventions undertaken have also improved the overall

functioning of the offices and made the working environment conducive to speedy service delivery. The

District today enjoys the status of the dream destination for “Administrative tourism”.

The effective tools before the implementation of the eOffice would be of some narrative value as

these IT interventions not only helped in monitoring the system effectively but also helped us making our

employees friendly to IT and use of computers. Without going into much detail, the interventions that



existed before the overall and seamless integration of all the offices of revenue administration are as

follows:-

1. Tappal/Dak Monitoring System

2. File Journey Management system using the Bar-Code

3. Arms License Management System

4. District Planning and Development Committee- Work Monitoring system

5. Collector’s Meeting Monitoring System

6. Collector’s Note Response System

7. Tree Plantation and Nursery Monitoring System.

8. Citizen Grievance Redressal Monitoring System

9. Non Agriculture Permission Monitoring System

10. IVRS based grievance redressal mechanism/e-Lokshahi

11. Sindhu Samadhan Monitoring Software: For monitoring the complaints received in the

Administration at your Doorstep Programme.

The interventions directly related to the citizens have been given a link on the dynamic

website of the District and thereby the status of the complaints or applications could be monitored

by the citizens directly. These systems are still in place except for those which have been

integrated through e-Office. The Sindhudurg Model of e-Governance is unique in its approach

which is practically oriented and citizen centric.

The implementation of the eOffice is a historic event which has changed the centuries old

established physical paper intensive office into a paperless office. The following write gives a

brief insight into this wonderful journey.

e-Office and the Administrative integration:

marching into an era of paperless Governance

The district today is seen as one of the most advanced districts, in e-Governance. Yet another feather

in the cap was total integration of the entire revenue administration form Tahsil level to Collectorate by

using the e-Office application. The District has the honour of being the first District in the country to

have done such massive administrative integration. Sindhudurg District was declared as the first

paperless governance District of Maharashtra, on the day of the inauguration of e-Office by Honorable

Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 24th

December 2012.

• An introduction to the e-Office

The first thing we see when we enter into the government office is stack of papers and lots of

files, piled high on the desks, sometimes difficult find a place or to find a person behind those files. Think

about the about the people who work every day with these files–creating, retrieving, signing, moving,

storing, and searching. Physical file management has been a part of Government since ages. However in



this new era of Information technology, Government is shredding these physical files bytes by bytes

converting these to digital files and implementing electronic office solution.

As per study, on an average, a document is photocopied 19 times. Paper files get doubled every

3.5 years and paper usage in an average office grows 22 percent a year and doubles every 3.3 years which

keeps adding to the new filing cabinets and resources to manage these. A letter has to pass through 41

steps and entered in dozens of the registers before it is answered.

The average time to retrieve and file a paper document is 10 minutes. Due to the large number of

physical files, average search time for any document is 18 -20 min minutes and sometimes these files are

never found. Misplacement of files is a very common issue and at any given time about 3-5% of

organisation’s files are lost or misplaced. In organizations where there is lot of paper based work, half of

the office’s time is spent in handling paper or data entry. In spite of this effort, 92 percent of information

is in manila folders.

Protecting the files kept in record rooms from wear and tear and any misuse is another challenge.

In any unforeseen event such as fire, no backups are available for the physical files stored. EOffice is

aimed at improving internal efficiencies in an organisation through electronic administration. E-Office is

workflow software that enables departments to clear, edit or suggest on files on computers connected via

a NICNET link, a point-to-point connectivity.

• Major Components of eOffice

eFile – Online File management System

KMS - Knowledge Management System

eTour – Tour Management System

eLeave – Leave Management System

The eOffice system is protected and is operated using Digital Signature Tokens (DSC) which has

been issued to every Officers / Employees.

The most important of the modules is e-File (File Management System). E-File is a work flow based

system that involves the handling of files with a more efficient electronic system. This system involves

all stages including the Diarisation of Inward Receipts, Creation of Files, Movement of Receipts and

Files and finally the archival of records. With e-File system the movement of Receipts and Files has

become seamless and there is more transparency in the entire process as each and every action is recorded

electronically. Also it is very easy to trace and track any file or letter and give information readily to the

citizens, which is the core of transparent governance.

The Knowledge Management system enables the administration in having a central and permanent

easily accessible and readily available repository of knowledge required for efficient functioning in the

system. It includes all the rules, regulations, office memoranda, Orders from the Courts of Law,

Government Resolutions etc. Also the various office orders can be placed on the notice board for the

ready reference and quick dissemination of information. In short every employee has an encyclopedia of

knowledge on his desktop. Also the availability of BPR enables the employee to know the flow of work

and can be used for continuous self training.



The Leave Management System enables the administration in quick and efficient monitoring of the

leave of the employees and also keep a permanent record of the leave taken.

The appointment scheduler is used for the planning of the entire schedule on daily basis and the

sharing facility ensures that there is no clash in the schedules and the time can be utilized effectively.

In short, eOffice has transformed the entire revenue administration in Sindhudurg District to a

paperless, more transparent and accountable organization with a planned approach in day to day

functioning. Ever Since the inception we have handled more than 25,000 files and over 70,000 receipts

electronically.

Equipped with the state of art computers, the well trained man power, effective and fast CRUs and the

best of permanent training and data entry centers, we claim to the best of the Government Offices at par

or better than the corporate offices.

• Journey to the e-Office

The transition from the typical Government Office and a typewriter based system to a modern day

office with seamless connectivity and total process integration was a daunting task for the



administration. But with meticulous planning and a steady and persistent approach the change

management and the transition was effectively handled. We proceeded in a phased manner for the

implementation of e-Office and the stages can be identified as:

1. Business Process Re-engineering

2. Resource Gap Analysis and covering the gaps

a. Infrastructure Gaps

b. Human Resource Gaps

3. Change Management and implementation

• Business Process Reengineering: To overhaul the entire system the BPR was undertaken and

in this we carried out the following tasks effectively.

o Filing system was improved on the lines of Central Secretariat Manual of Office

Procedures.

o Identified more than 2300 subjects being handled by the District Collector office and

graded them into the Basic, Primary and Secondary Processes.

o Documenting the ideal work flow for each process and the various provisions of the

law or Government orders needed for the same.

o Record classification and record room improvement: Over 50,000 files with lakhs and

lakhs of pages were classified and moved into record rooms thereby improving the

overall environment of the office.

o Working out the scanning load to move into the electronic system: The remaining files

that were current and required for the day to day work were identified for scanning and

moving them into the e-Office system. We had a daunting task of scanning about 11

lakh pages in thousands of files, which was done very smoothly by our motivated set

of employees.

Before Record Sorting



After Record Sorting

Resource Gap Analysis and covering of the Gaps:

• Infrastructure Gaps: The office had terrible shortage of computers, scanners and also the

internet connectivity. These gaps were identified and through constant planning and resource

management the gaps were plugged to create an ideal environment for the switch over to total

electronic governance. Over 350 employees were provided with new computers; all offices

were provided with heavy duty scanners and were connected with internet and LAN.



• Human Resource Gaps: The employees were trained initially on the use of computers and then

slowly on the e-office application. We conducted more than 80 mass training sessions and

almost daily, desk to desk training to produce a pool of well trained and motivated lot to make

the change over possible.



• Change Management and launching of the e-Office: The slow and steady march towards

creating the best governed office was not easy if the change management was not effectively

tackled and this was done by following a strategy of training continuously and motivating

people to work ceaselessly for achieving the aims. The e-Office champions were selected and

they were the people who managed the change over by training and personal example. With

this approach we finally launched the biggest project in e-Governance in the history of the

state on 24th

December and this was inaugurated by the Honorable Chief Minister of

Maharashtra. The function was attended by the Honorable Revenue Minister, Honorable

Minister Industries and Ports, Honorable Chief Secretary, Honorable Additional Chief

Secretary and various other dignitaries.



e-Office inauguration by Hon’ble CM

• Advantages of the eOffice

o Immediate Results

– Transparency & Accountability: The documents or the files are preserved forever.

There are no chances of the files being misplaced, modified or lost. There is an absolute

transparency as anything once written on the file cannot be changed or undone. The files

cannot be kept pending as the system is designed to give feedback and monitoring

mechanism.

– Quick disposal of cases

– Monitoring of pending cases

– Exact position of receipts and files

– Single Employee directory

– Preservation of knowledge in an organized fashion

eINDIA Governance Summit 2013

Nomination for Best G2G IT Initiative of the Year

� Long term Results

– Seamless integration of various other applications with eOffice

– Creating an e-environment for the employees

– Simplifying the future with good infrastructure and increased awareness on computers

– Building a Citizen interface to facilitate the whereabouts and acti

applications, petitions, RTI, etc.

– Paving a way for the transition to a Paperless/ Less Paper Office

Sindhudurg today has the rare distinction of being the first district in the country to have

successfully integrated the entire revenue administration from the Tahsil level to District Collectorate.

The two centuries old institution of District Collector has moved into a

Sindhudurg leads this monumental change.

Before and After the implementation of e

Revenue Branch Collector Office

District Collector at work

eOffice Sindhudurg, Maharashtra


Long term Results

ess integration of various other applications with eOffice

environment for the employees

Simplifying the future with good infrastructure and increased awareness on computers

Building a Citizen interface to facilitate the whereabouts and action taken on grievances,

applications, petitions, RTI, etc.

Paving a way for the transition to a Paperless/ Less Paper Office

has the rare distinction of being the first district in the country to have


The two centuries old institution of District Collector has moved into a new era of Governance and

Sindhudurg leads this monumental change.

Before and After the implementation of e-Office

Revenue Branch Collector Office

District Collector at work (Before and After e-Office implementation)

eOffice Sindhudurg, Maharashtra

By: Virendra Singh, IAS

Simplifying the future with good infrastructure and increased awareness on computers

on taken on grievances,

has the rare distinction of being the first district in the country to have


new era of Governance and

Office

Office implementation)



Few Newspaper Reports



OUTCOME ANALYSIS

The interventions and the initiatives taken have resulted in a lot benefits which can be listed as under:

• The fruits of development have started to reach the hitherto unreached sections of populace

• The drudgery of the citizens and employees has reduced.

• The administration has become more accountable and transparent.

• The working environment has become friendly to citizens.

• The public participation programmes have become more successful.

• The District has become a role model of Administrative Excellence not only in Maharashtra

but the entire Country.

We today proudly boast to be the center of Administrative Excellence coupled with good public

participation as a role model district. This entire journey has been planned and executed in a short period

of one and half years. This is an example that has been followed by many districts and the Government

has made it mandatory for all the District Collectors to visit and study the Sindhudurg Model of

governance after the successful implementation of the e-Office.

eINDIA Summit SINDHUDURG write up · eINDIA Governance Summit 2013 eOffice Sindhudurg, Maharashtra...

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