E-Governance: 4/1/10

E-SHAKTI CARD IN BIHAR
January 4, 2010
The Indian Express

Bihar government has decided to issue over one million E-shakti, a biometric muster roll-cum-job card, by March 31, 2010. Patna was chosen as the first district to extend benefit of the smart card. The service provider Smaartech Technologies limited will cover beneficiaries in over 1300 villages spread over 23 blocks in the district.

The E-shakti project was inaugurated on February 24, 2009 in the Paliganj block of Patna district by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and till now around 8.76 lakh village labourers of 14 blocks have been registered under it. Over 3,000 smart cards have already been distributed.

E-Shakti card will be distributed among 24 million NREGA beneficiaries in approximately 39,000 villages spread over 534 blocks in next four years.

 

TELANGANA STIR’S UNIQUE IMPACT
January 3, 2010
Business Standard

Originally, Andhra Pradesh was to be the recipient of the first unique identification (UID) number. However, political unrest in the state has taken its toll. Now, it appears that Nandan Nilekani’s project will be rolled out first in the state most ready for it — Karnataka. Pilot projects have already been done and the majority of Karanataka’s population will have UIDs by the end of 2011. The proactive state government has also set up an empowered committee on UIDs under the chief secretary. The state cabinet will, at its next meeting, decide who will be on the committee. The numbers will begin to be issued by February 2011.

 

RECORD OF ALL STOLEN VEHICLES SOON
Pawan Pandita
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)

If you are planning to buy a second hand vehicle, your concern whether the vehicle is a stolen one is soon going to be over.

The district Transport Department is going to have a database of the vehicles on the Internet that will be linked with the other states.

The softwares for this new system have been developed by National Informatics Centre and are called Vaahan and Saarthi.

The Union Ministry of Surface Transport has issued directives for the preparation of a national as well as a state register for feeding all related information including registration of vehicles and driving licences issued by the states.

This register will have to be maintained by all the states on the basis of two softwares - Vaahan (for details pertaining to the vehicle) and Saarthi (for information pertaining to the driver of the vehicle), which will come in handy in the event of any offence registered against a vehicle. The information in the two registers would be accessible by the police, intelligence, insurance, income tax and transport departments.

Mukul Kumar, Sub Divisional Magistrate, Faridabad, is also the road transport authority for non-commercial vehicles.

 

PLAN TO DEVELOP SOFTWARE TO TRACK SALE AT PDS SHOPS
Vivek Narayanan, Chennai, January 4, 2010
The Times of India (Chennai edition)

Ration shops have for long been seen as places for hoarding and illegally selling products meant for the Public Distribution System (PDS). This could, in the coming years, end with three departments, including the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection (TNCSCP) department, planning to develop an integrated software to track the supply, storage and distribution of PDS articles.

Till September 2009, over 1,700 cases were filed under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli; 75 persons detained under the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies and Essential Commodities Act, 1980 were prosecuted. The licences of more than 240 vehicles used for smuggling rice were cancelled. Officials were also advised to monitor a possible nexus between ration shop employees and ricemill owners.

Taking the cue, the TNCSCP, TNCSC and the Registry of Cooperative Societies (RCS) decided to come together to curb the illegal sale of rice and other PDS commodities. Work on the software will begin after March as the officials are now busy weeding out bogus ration cards.

“We will have an integrated software to track the supply, storage and distribution of civil supplies commodities. A private firm has been given the task of preparing the details to be fed into the software,” said TNSCP commissioner K Rajaraman.

Using the software, he said, officials can monitor the quantity of rice and other products being supplied, the quantity is being stored and the quantity actually being distributed. “If the stocks and sale details do not tally we can easily find out the ration shop involved in illegal sale,” he said.