eHaryana Concludes:ICT Transforming Haryana For Inclusive Growth

By 121 News Reporter

Chandigarh 08^th February:---- The two-days egovernance conference, eHaryana, concluded at UT Guest House here today, with the experts chalking out comprehensive plans to effectively deliver citizen centric services as a part of good governance. Various senior government officials delineated the initiatives by various departments and discussed the challenges posed by inadequate power in rural areas, lack of sufficient bandwidth, collection and management of large data, and integration of various departments for a composite package of services.

Smt. Navraj Sidhu, Principal Secretary Health, Haryana, moderating the session on "Roadmap for Common Service Centres" remarked that the state has already deployed ICT to deliver health services in which mobile and web-based apps are being used to deliver health services and collect critical data in real time, including triangulation of child and mother mortality, information about vaccination schedules, screening of disabilities, etc.

Devender Singh, Principal Secretary and Chairman of Haryana Power Utilities, remarked that ICT is being deployed to plug pilfirage, management of complaints, registration of online FIRs, and facilitating industrial connection through online applications.  A pilot project has also been launched to allow large consumers with over 10kw connections to provide meter readings from their own meters and deposit the bills accordingly, he informed.

Pramod Kumar, Chairman of Punjab Governance Reforms Commission, however, emphasized the need for rationalising the policies, eliminate faulty schemes, improve the processes in order to put in place an effective and efficient system of good governance.  In Punjab, he informed, the major emphasis is in addressing the issues of Trust, Dignity, Productivity, and Citizen-Engagement Deficit which a common faces when dealing with the Government.  He advised that each department is segmented and working independently with a tunnel view, whereas the need for good governance is for each department to have a holistic view and work in cooperation with each other, by reducing unnecessary procedures and increased accountability.

T. Koshy, Executive Director Advisory Services for Ernst & Young, emphasised the need for having quality data which can be effectively analysed and used for delivery of citizen services. 

Sandeep Khurana, Vice President with world's largest health care company, United Health Group, said that data management should be robust enough to prevent health care frauds which account for 15-20 percent in India. He said that a well-knit data collection can also help in launching several health initiatives to prevent the onset of epidemics and other critical diseases.

Puneet Ahuja, senior consultant with Juniper Networks, however, underlined the need for the government to protect the critical citizen data and other information from the unscrupulous hackers, and multiple security levels must be incorporated to protect the web applications and portals safe from hackers.

 Keshni Anand Arora, Deputy Director General, UIDAI, informed that 'Adhaar' card identification should be integrated with every citizen-centric service which facilitates authentication of an individual promptly.  She informed already a few banks have started using the KYC facility of UIDAI that helps people open their accounts without carrying any other identity document.  In Maharashtra, Axis Bank is extensively using this facility.  She emphasised that linking citizen services to Adhar can help the government departments track the beneficiaries and prevent any misuse of funds.