E-Governance News: 11/12/09

RCOM LANDS MGOVENANCE CONTRACTS
Chennai
The Hindu Business Line  The Pioneer  The Financial Express   

Reliance Communications is said to have bagged the mGovernance infrastructure development contracts in Mumbai, Maharashtra circle and Kerala.

According to sources in the company, the mobile operator will set up the telecom infrastructure to launch mGovernance services in these circles. RCom will team up with the Government's local VAS service partners to implement these projects by connecting various government departments in these three Circles on the mobile data platform through its pan-India telecom backbone, said a highly placed official.

In Mumbai and Maharashtra, the Dilip Wagh-promoted IIST Infotech is the Official VAS partner of the Government, while MobeMe Wireless is the VAS partner of the Kerala Government, the official said.

According to the sources, these projects can potentially generate over 20 crore daily transactions, estimated on the current usage pattern. All the services offered will be on chargeable basis. Different price points will be defined for each service.

 

 

UIDAI TO DRAFT RULES FOR VOLUNTEERS
New Delhi
Business Standard  Deccan Chronicle  

Buoyed by the response of several eminent individuals to lend their services to 'The Unique Identification Authority of India', the body has made rules for such volunteers willing to help in the project.

The government project headed by Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani will take assistance of such people and NGOs to ensure that poor and marginalised people are included in the system.

"In order to ensure that the poor and marginalised are included into the system, it hopes to take the assistance of volunteers and NGOs.

"The UIDAI hopes that it will be able to areas of technology, awareness creation and enrolment. The Authority plans to have volunteers both on full time and part-time basis," a spokesperson of UIDAI said in a statement.

He said application for volunteers would be put up on the website 'www.uidai.gov.in' and shall assess if their services are required in their area of expertise.

"If the authority is satisfied that the applicant has the requisite specialised skills, experience and qualifications and there is no conflict of interest then the Authority will issue an offer letter along with the specific role for the volunteer," he said.

UIDAI has also come out with a Code of Conduct the volunteers need to follow.

 

 

ACES SYSTEM LAUNCHED
Visakhapatnam
The Hindu

A new web-based software application - Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES) was launched by Additional Director General (Systems) of the Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax, New Delhi, D.P. Dash at the New Custom House here on Thursday

The new system enables automation of the working of Central Excise and Service Tax Department of Visakhapatnam Zone (comprising coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of AP).

General Manager of HPCL M. Naveen Kumar, Telecom District General Manager P. Nagaraju, Central Excise Commissioner R. Shakuntala were among those who attended.

ACES, a workflow-based software application under Central Board of Excise and Customs, is designed to provide the trade an electronic interface with the Department and aims at reducing paper work, visits to the Departmental offices and improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in indirect tax administration in India.

The new system enables the trade and industry to take registration online, electronically file various statutory returns, intimations and permissions, refund claims and requests for provisional assessments. The users can view and track the status of their documents / applications online and also get business related alerts and messages.

 

THE $10 BN OPPORTUNITY
Ganesh Natarajan
Deccan Chronicle (Bengaluru edition)  The Asian Age  

The Indian domestic opportunity for knowledge services has been for many years in a state very similar to the Indian economy itself through the nineties -threatening to take off but never quite gathering the momentum.

But the defining moment may now have arrived and there is no better example of that than the presentation made by the recently appointed secretary of eGovernance to the apex body of the Indian IT and BPO industry, the NASSCOM Executive Council. Sensing the mood of his audience which had moved from serious engagement in a discussion of global economic prospects to a casual approach to what was expected to be just one more statement of intent from the Indian Government, Rao, the charismatic secretary started by saying: "Please listen to me as you would to any other $10 billion customer."

That guaranteed full attention for a presentation on e-Government initiatives and budgets, which demonstrated the new government's intent to accelerate the process of domestic consumption of IT.

The e-Government opportunity in the domestic sector has already thrown up many mega projects like the national passport issuance plan and the unique identity scheme, which will both provide significant downstream opportunities for large as well as small companies to get a share of the pie.

With the National Institute of Smart Governance, a joint venture of NASSCOM and the Ministry of Information Technology developing the framework for engagement of the government with private sector consultants and systems integrators, the stage is set for multiple new projects in various neglected areas including land records, government procurement, citizen to government interfaces and efficiency and citizen services transformation across the board.

The significant areas of domestic transformation in the country, which will call for significant innovation in thinking, planning and implementation will be education and healthcare.

While the role of IT in Healthcare will have to transcend hospital computerisation and patient records to enabling telemedicine and other distributed healthcare services, the real value of IT will be seen in enabling scale in the higher education delivery processes across the country.

 

HOODA: CIVIC BODIES TO GO ONLINE
Rohtak
The Tribune

The government has decided to computerise all civic bodies to streamline their working and check alleged irregularities. This was announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while redressing public grievances at a rest house here this morning.

The Chief Minister said his government was committed to weeding out corruption. He said details of all works and projects would be made available online and it would be easier for people to access information and track the progress regarding particular cases.

He said computerisation work would begin from civic bodies, including municipal committees, councils and corporations, so that development works got more attention and the common issues of residents were attended to immediately.

He said any person who felt disappointed with the progress regarding any project or scheme could take up the matter with the higher authorities. He said the civic bodies had been directed to take up the computerisation work of the house tax record in all cities and all the officials have been asked to put the record.

He said computers would be provided in all offices and would be linked with the Internet facility soon. The Chief Minister said the government had also taken up the work of making jails online.

 

SMALL BUSINESSES PLAYING AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN GOVT PROJECTS
Ashish Agashe
The Economic Times

Mumbai-based e-governance provider ABM Knowledgeware gets 100 per cent of its business from the government. But it’s eyeing a fifth of its revenues this year from a single clause in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Under the scheme, which helps cities get funding for improving infrastructure, every applicant city has to start an e-governance system to get the funds. “We worked hard to prepare a good package which was selected by the Union ministry of urban development among the packages which the cities can pick up,” says the firm’s managing director Prakash Rane.

It is now being implemented in Mumbai, Nanded, Kalyan-Dombivili and Ulhasnagar, he says.

ABM Knowledgeware is among a clutch of companies working with the government on its flagship programmes and playing a pivotal role in making them happen through enterprise, zeal and hard work. Be it JNNURM, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), or the newly formed Unique Identification Database Authority (UIDA) headed by Nandan Nilekani, there are now greater synergies between the public and the private sector, especially emerging businesses.

Working with the government, of course, has it own challenges. Rane cites their inability to distinguish between tangible and knowledge-based solutions provided by his company. Moreover, being the trustees and not the owners of the money, officials are often criticised to be slow in decision-making.

“You must know the procedural complexities, and once you know that, I can tell you there’s no customer like the government,” says Rane.

Glodyne Technoserve, a Mumbai-headquartered company, has been working with the Bihar government for creating the software architecture for NREGS implementation. Under the scheme, it intends to start 25 million user accounts, each having minute details like biometric information, for security.

 

E-Governance News: 10/12/09

IT SMES FOR GREATER SHARE IN E-GOVERNANCE PROJECTS
Kolkata/Bhubaneswar
Business Standard

The IT SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Orissa have urged the state IT department to come out with a new ICT (information and communication technologies) policy which would enable these units to have a greater share in the implementation of the e-governance projects in the state.

Presently, the share of the large IT units in the implementation of the e-governance projects in Orissa is more than ten times that of the SMEs, said Subhadarshi Mishra, secretary, Confederation of Information Technology Enterprises (CITE).

Mishra said, a new ICT policy was needed to overcome the anomalies existing between the large IT units and the SMEs in the state.

As against 230 acres of land allotted to the large IT players in the state, the SMEs have been allotted only 30 acres. While the 10 large IT units have a workforce of around 4000, there are 57 IT SMEs employing 6000 people.

The new ICT policy should be framed by the state government based on the progressive IT practices of neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and also taking into account the global IT scenario post 2005.

Besides, the new ICT policy should incorporate enabling provisions for the IT SMEs like exemption of electricity duty, rent subsidy as well as waiver of VAT (value added tax), he added.

Bijoy K Sahoo, president, CITE pointed out that the IT SMEs were facing problems related to physical possession of land in the Infocity area of the city.

He said that though the units were allotted land, they were unable to take physical possession of the plot, adding, “The Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) needs to hand over bounded land to these units.”

Speaking on the occasion, P K Mohapatra, the state IT secretary said, “We need to revisit our ICT policy which was formulated in 2004. The state IT department will come out with a new ICT policy in 2010.”

Referring to the fast implementation of the e-governance projects in Orissa, he said, the state chief minister will inaugurate the e-registration project on January 1, 2010.

The e-registration project is being taken up at a cost of Rs 63 crore and it will be implemented on a BOOT (build, own, operate and transfer) basis by the Orissa e-Governance Services Limited, a special purpose vehicle formed by the Orissa Computer Application Centre and IL&FS- Infrastructure Development Corporation.

INCLUSION, VERIFICATION ARE CHALLENGES OF UID PROJECT
Divya Trivedi, Ahmedabad
The Hindu Business Line

Although the unique identification number will not be mandatory, the number of services requiring it - from checking into a hotel to opening a bank account - will mean that anybody wanting to avail of services in India would not be able to do it without a UID number, according to Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India.

“The UID does not bestow Indian nationality or citizenship to the holder and absolutely no rights or entitlements, but all residents of the country will get an identity through it. The decision as to whom should it be given to or not is being discussed in the public sphere and a decision has not been reached yet. The challenge is to make it simple enough to verify and yet secure enough to avoid duplication. It is a tussle between strong inclusion and secure verification,” he said, while replying to queries at a meet organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Gujarat.

Nilekani was in Gujarat to speak to the Chief Minister. The UID is a massive coordination exercise and requires all State governments and various agencies to agree for it to become possible politically and sustainable for many years to come. The UIDAI has spoken to various Ministries, regulators, 15 State governments and expects to roll out the process of enrolment by February 2011.

IN GUJ, NILEKANI PINS COASTAL SECURITY ON ID PROJECT
Jumana Shah & Himansh Dhomse
DNA

The country is waiting with bated breath for the implementation of the ambitious Unique Identification (UID) project initiated by the Union government. But Gujarat may well come out on top because of its concerns regarding the identification of residents in the coastal villages of Saurashtra, and of people living in Kutch close to the Pakistan border.

These were among the main concerns articulated at the first meeting between UID chairman Nandan Nilekani and chief minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. Nilekani also met senior bureaucrats of the state.

Nilekani's hectic day on Tuesday started with a jog on the IIM campus, followed by a public lecture at Tagore Hall, and a meeting in Gandhinagar in the afternoon. It ended again at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad -- his favorite place in the city -- where he was putting up for two days.

After a genial talk at the institute about the UID project, Nilekani spoke to DNA about his meeting with the 15th state government for cooperation in the implementation of the project, concerns about Gujarat's coastal security and how he is getting used to becoming a 'Cabinet-rank' minister, from an IT czar.

Excerpts:

How was the meeting with the CM and state government officials?

I have been meeting ministers and bureaucrats in all states for the UID project, which is why I also met Gujarat government officials. On Tuesday, I met Modi for around half-an-hour and he showed interest in the project. The meeting was fruitful. The Gujarat government is going to be one of the registrars in the project. Overall, I got a good response from the government and after explaining the whole project, the government is quite keen to participate. I must appreciate the civil service cadre of Gujarat - very sharp. I met the chief secretary, forest officials and several others for around two hours on Tuesday afternoon.

Coastal security formed a good chunk of the discussion?

It is a concern and it was a part of the discussion, as it is a part of the UID project.

When will the first UID be issued?

We have set the target for February 2011 by when we will start issuing numbers.

UID TO TELL IF YOU'RE WHO YOU CLAIM TO BE
Ahmedabad
DNA

The unique identification project of the Union government is perhaps its most ambitious and is likely to have a far reaching and profound impact across all sections.Yet, few of us actually know anything about the project. So, when chairman of the UID authority of India Nandan Nilekani spoke for almost 60 minutes at a stretch on Tuesday morning about the project, the audience was undeniably captivated.

"UID is not a card; it is only a unique number for every resident of the country. The purpose of UID is mainly to verify whether a person is the one he is claiming to be. Having a UID does not give a him/her any rights or privileges. It is a simple method for agencies to know your resident (KYR)," Nilekani said.

"All the processes to further check on his credit history, or any other verifications will not be included in the UID project. They will be called KYR+," "heNilekani was addressing an audience of more than a thousand businessmen and students of the city, as part of the Lincoln Lecture Series organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

"The verification will be done online through a biometric identification system, which will be put in place over the next few years," he said. The task is mammoth and Nilekani admits as much.

E Governance News : 9/12/09

E-GOVERNANCE WORKSHOP ON DEC 15
The India Express

The Mahratta Chambers of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has organised a workshop on “ Transparency and efficiency through e-governance” on December 15 from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm at MCCIA, Senapati Bapat Road.

The participants would be briefed about main motives for exploring e governance, focussing on public governance of safety and security, current issues in democracy as a government practice, public service design.

NILEKANI CALLS ON MODI, HOLDS MEETING WITH SECRETARIES
Gandhinagar
DNA

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chairman, Nandan Nilekani today called on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and explained to him the concept of unique identification card project launched by the Cntral government.

Nilekani had an hour-long meeting with the chief minister during which he explained the entire concept of the card to be given to all citizens of the country.

Moreover, Nilekani also had a meeting with the senior secretaries of the state government regarding the project and explained how it could be implemented across the country. 

E-GOVERNANCE AWARDS DISTRIBUTED
Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that conventional modes of governance were fast giving way to governance using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Kerala to ensure efficiency in reaching services to the people and transparency in administration.

All departments under the State government were drawing up their own e-governance programmes and the effort now was to bring all these programmes under a single umbrella, he said, while distributing the newly instituted e-governance awards to departments and individuals who had displayed praiseworthy initiatives in the ongoing transition to a new style of administration.

E-Governance News: 8/12/09

KARNATAKA LAUNCHES E-GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME
Chennai/Bangalore
Business Standard

As part of strengthening e-governance initiative, Karnataka government today launched the Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) that seeks to establish a state information highway connecting its 2300 offices across the state.

Karnataka has been a leader in e-governance and the KSWAN, which uses Multi Protocol Lable Switching (MPLS) technology, will help tone up administration, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa said. It will help enhance the efficiency of administration, he said and described it as a boon to ensure better delivery of government services.

KSWAN, implemented at a cost of Rs 177 crore as part of the National e-governance programme, provides a highly ‘reliable and robust’ communication corridor between the government at all levels— state, district and taluks.

It will create a “plug and connect” environment for all government offices so as to provide connectivity and bandwidth on demand, besides providing “data”, Voice” and “Video services”.

With KSWAN, all government offices from district and taluk level will have video conferencing solution. 

EKGAON TO SCALE UP IT-ENABLED RURAL SERVICES, VENTURE OVERSEAS
Seema Sindhu, New Delhi
Business Standard

Ekgaon, a Delhi-based technology and management services company that focuses on rural areas, which recently won the Dell Small Business Excellence Award in India, is now looking to scale up its business and presence in both India and overseas.

Started in 2002, ekgaon provides IT-enabled solutions for financial services, agricultural services and e-governance in rural areas.

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya, co-founder and chief executive officer, ekgaon, said, “We are looking for venture funding to scale up our presence. We plan to reach 15 million clients in the next five years.”

The company provides software solutions to banks and insurance companies to deal with rural markets. Through these solutions it has served 50,000 individuals in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka with mobile banking for a minimal charge of 15-25 paise per transaction.

Now it plans to introduce remittance services by mid-next year. It will also launch these services in Nepal and West Africa.

It also provides agricultural services like weather forecasts, information on fertilisers and nutrients through SMS and IVR in Tamil Nadu free of cost. It will soon be launching these in Uttar Pradesh.

In February this year, the company had also bagged Best Paper of the Compendium Award in the 12th National e-Governance Conference held by the Central government in Goa.

Ekgaon has developed solutions, which allow central tracking and monitoring of rural entitlement programmes like PDS and pension. In collaboration with NGOs it collects information and data on these schemes from the entitled rural folk over mobile through SMS.

The data then enters a central sever directly and automatically generates a report on how many people have benefitted from the schemes. It then shares the report with the respective authorities to crack down on corruption. Ekgaon has covered 44,000 households under this programme in Orissa. 

BENGAL GEARS UP FOR UID PROJECT
Kolkata
The Indian Express

With Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh writing to the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to expedite work on the unique identification project, the state government has geared itself up to launch a pilot project in the state.

The PM has advised Bhattacharjee to create two separate committees for this purpose — one to be headed by the CM himself to monitor the progress of the project and the other to look into the implementation at the grass-roots level. Sources said the CM has asked concerned officials to take steps to form the committees immediately. “Within a few days, the state-level committee will be formed,” said an official.

IT Minister Debes Das said the Unique ID Authority has identified two places in the state for implementation of the pilot project.

Sources, however, said executing the project in West Bengal may face some problems mainly because of the existence of a large number of fake ration cards and complicated demographic condition of the districts. The population staying close to the border with Bangladesh is another major hurdle, they said.  

MCCIA WORKSHOP ON E-GOVERNANCE
Pune
The Indian Express

The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has organised a workshop on “ Transperancy and efficiency through e governance” on December 15 from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm at MCCIA, Senapati Bapat Road.

The participants would be briefed about main motives for exploring e governance, focussing on public governance of safety and security, current issues in democracy as a government practice, public service design. There would be discussion on e governance in India and a assignment on developing a design specification for an e government or e governance application, said a press release issued by Anant Sardeshmukh, Additional Director General, MCCIA.

MCD ‘GHOST EMPLOYEES’ UNDER MHA SCANNER
Ayesha Arvind, New Delhi
The Indian Express

A week after a report submitted by Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra revealed that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had 22,583 “ghost employees” on its payroll, the Home Ministry has reportedly inquired about the scandal and sought a detailed report on how the lapse could go undetected, and a list of all employees responsible for it. The ministry has also sought regular updates of the status on the findings.

“We are in touch with the Home Ministry and have briefed them about our findings so far,” Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain said on Monday. According to Sain, an internal preliminary inquiry is already on and deputy commissioners of all 12 zones have been asked to submit reports of their respective zones within a month, after which the commissioner will submit a detailed report that is aimed at identifying all those responsible for the administrative lapse that has been costing the corporation a minimum of Rs 17 crore every month.

Meanwhile, a host of other agencies and institutions like the Delhi Police and Delhi University seem to have followed suit by announcing that biometric attendance systems are on the cards for their respective staff. The latest entry on the list is the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). As part of its e-governance project, the NDMC will soon initiate a biometric attendance system for all its 15,000 employees. The attendance system is a part of its detailed plan of issuing biometric-enabled smart cards for employees.

A brainchild of the NDMC’s Information Technology (IT) department, the attendance system will accommodate the smart cards as well as thumb impressions of the employees. Also, besides serving as the attendance tool the new biometric smart cards will replace the existing I-card, Health Card and Library Card and will merge them into one. These technologically enhanced smart cards are almost “impossible to forge” and cannot be transferred to others.

The smart cards will also be used to control entry to Palika Kendra and some access points inside the building.

E-Governance News: 7/12/09

KERALA CM TO GIVE AWAY E-GOVERNANCE AWARDS TOMORROW
Thiruvananthapuram, December 7, 2009
The Hindu Business Line

The Chief Minister, V. S. Achuthanandan, will give away the Kerala State e-Governance Awards at a ceremony to be held here on Tuesday. Vishal Dhupar, CEO, Symantec South Asia, will be the keynote speaker at the function, an official spokesman said here.

Instituted by State Government, the selection of the awards was coordinated by Institute of Management in Government (IMG), an autonomous body.

The awards intend to recognise and appreciate the efforts of various e-Governance projects that have been implemented till last year (2008).

Nominations were invited in the categories ranging from online services and e-filing; best website; e-payment services; m-Governance; best implementation of the Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK); and local language content development to maximum utilisation of Akshaya Centers.

The IMG received 33 nominations in all which were screened by a high-level jury. It comprised of V. Ramachandran, former chief secretary, Government of Kerala and Member, Administrative Reforms Committee, Government of India; Anand Parthasarathy, Consulting Editor, The Hindu; Upendra Verma, Director, IMG; and Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary (IT), Government of Kerala.

“E-Governance projects in various departments were started years back when computer as a tool had not yet gained popular acceptance among the average Government or public sector employee,” said Dr Ajay Kumar.

PAN TO BE LINKED WITH UNIQUE ID NUMBER
Surabhi, New Delhi, December 07, 2009
The Financial Express

Banking heavily on the use of biometrics, the ten-digit Permanent Account Number (PAN) and the 16-digit Unique Identification (UID) Number are set to be linked up. The government has decided to link the plan for biometric PAN cards with the UID project. The finance ministry has already begun talking to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in this regard. “We are having discussions with the finance ministry. Both projects will be using biometrics, so it is a good choice,” UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said.

The move comes at a time when both the income tax department and the UIDAI propose to use biometrics to verify the identity of citizens and avoid duplication of cards. More importantly, it would help the UIDAI get easy access to the nearly 70 million PAN cardholders.

Under the proposal, the PAN card infrastructure will be used by the UIDAI for data collection and enrollment of citizens. Further, the UID number will be embedded in new PAN cards, while earlier PAN cardholders will be sent a letter with their UID number.

For the Biometric Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards, tax authorities were planning to capture the fingerprints of four fingers of an individual—two from each hand; along with the face (with the eyes fully visible), the UIDAI is expected to use only fingerprints.

While the Central Board of Direct Taxes has been planning to launch biometric PAN cards for over three years, it was just this year that it actually floated a tender for it.

Seven firms including Infosys, HCL, Tata Consultancy Services and its subsidiary CMC and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, ITI and Bharat Electronics were shortlisted for the project.

In the initial years, the department plans to issue biometric PAN cards to new applicants and those seeking a re-issue. It would be extended to existing cardholders later. Nilekani has said that once all new applicants move to the UID-backed platform, existing PAN card holders can be given a specific timeframe of say, two years, to migrate.

But the cost of the card remains an issue and the department officials are staying silent about for now. At present, PAN cards come at a fee of Rs 67. The biometric cards are likely to cost about Rs 200 to Rs 300. Sources said the fee was likely to be hiked marginally, while the tax department too would chip in and bear part of the costs. However, higher fees could pose as a detriment to new applicants.

WHEAT E-AUCTION SOON TO CLEAR STOCKS
Sandip Das, New Delhi, December 07, 2009
The Financial Express

After a lukewarm response to the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) for wheat, the government has decided to launch e-auction of its stocks in select states.

Sources said that the e-auction would be launched in Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana this month and is expected to bring down prices of wheat offered under the OMSS. “Through online bidding, we intend to sell wheat in open market,” official sources said.

 

CAB DRIVERS: ID CARDS WITH IN-BUILT MICROCHIP SOON
Pune, November 07, 2009
The Indian Express

Come January and all cab drivers in the city would be seen sporting a uniform, either sky-blue or grey. In April, these drivers would also get identity cards from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) that will have an inbuilt microchip and general packet radio service (GPRS) system to track the vehicle.

The decision was taken at a meeting held by State Transport Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil with the cab-operators in the city on Saturday. Another important decision taken at the meeting was that henceforth if a cab driver was found involved in a crime, the permit of the cab owner, too, would be suspended.