Governance  |  A K Mehta

There are immense possibilities that can be achieved through the mode of e-governance in Urban Governance, says A K Mehta

E-gov is the way Forward for Urban Centres

The Ministry has formulated benchmarks for 8 services, specifying levels that the city should be looking to attain

The Ministry of Urban  Development launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National  Urban Renewal Mission  (JNNURM) on December 3, 2005 under which e-governance is a key reform. Within it, certain services were defined that were to be put in e-governance mode. In the area of e-governance, some very important initiatives have been taken — for example, billing and collection of property tax in Mumbai and Bangalore, the provision of citizen facilitation centres, etc.  There are important initiatives taken in many cities which can serve as a role model for other cities. For example, building plan approval is a major problem that everybody faces. But, there are cities that are able to give provisional approvals within a very short period of time.   So, there are immense possibilities that can be achieved through the mode of e-governance.

The National Mission Mode Project on e-Governance is planned to be launched in 423 cities. Currently, it is under implementation in 35 cities. This programme is now being expanded to 65 Mission Cities. Hopefully, it will expand to 423 Class-I towns - ones that have a population of over one lakh. The Ministry of Urban Development provides financial assistance currently under JNNURM.

The Ministry has also formulated service level benchmarks for 8 specific services identified for implementation in e-governance mode under the Mission indicating what a city should be looking to attain. These benchmarks specify levels of service that you should achieve in delivery. The focus is essentially on service related delivery benchmarks and not application benchmarks. The industry and trade understands application benchmark very well. They will tell you about the expected downtime or uptime. But, from a citizen's perspective it is not important; what is important is the level of service being provided and that has been defined for these 8 services. It creates a uniform set of indicators for each of these services and definition for each of those indicators. It also specifies how they will be measured and reported. However, there is a need to recognise that every city will not reach the benchmark immediately.  They can look at an intermediate target but they may explain why they are doing so?

The benchmarking exercise didn't start recently. The pilot programme started with four basic municipal services — water, solid waste management, storm water drainage, and sewerage - and results were extremely positive. It is currently on in 27 cities and every city feels it has led to important issues being taken up in the policy domain. For example in the case of connections to the sewer, it has thrown up the issue of barriers to these connections. Similarly, it throws up issues like if you have a non-revenue water of say 60 per cent or 50 per cent, then what is the need to create assets; it is rehabilitation that you should be looking at.
The benchmarking exercise thus helps you to look at the data and your way of working, and then introspect whether you need more asset creation or you need to be more efficient in what you are already doing. This will bring in a certain level of discipline in the decision-making process. In the case of e-governance, we specify what ought to be the service levels in respect of these various services.

E-governance is very important and certain services need to be delivered in that mode. Today, there is no issue about technology and the costs have come down drastically. Also, it is much more efficient to do certain services in e-governance mode. For example, it would be difficult to manage property tax in a big city like Mumbai without e-governance. If there is a GIS-based map, it is easy to find out which properties have paid and which have not paid. This can be escalated to the Municipal Commissioner level and then to the state level after a certain number of days.  The synergy it brings in the system is incomparable. If through the same application you can talk across the state, at the press of a button you also get a snapshot of how efficiently you are collecting property tax at the state level.

"The Ministry is going for an outcome-based and citizen-centric approach, realizing that for citizens what matters is the service level being planned and provided."

The Ministry is keen to expand this programme to all the 423 cities with well defined outcomes. It is actively promoting an outcome-based and citizen centric approach realizing that it does not matter to citizens that how much is being spent; what matters is the service level being provided and guaranteed. The service levels also need to be disclosed as part of the public disclosure law so that it is available in public domain at predefined intervals and frequency.

A K Mehta is Joint Secretary
Ministry of Urban Development