Livemint; Surabhi Agarwal; Tuesday, July 26, 2011,
The Bill requires all govt departments to compulsorily deliver services to citizens electronically
The Electronic Service Delivery Bill 2011, which will require all ministries and government departments to compulsorily deliver services to citizens electronically, is in its final stages of formulation.
The Bill has been vetted by the law ministry and inter-ministerial consultations have been completed. It will be tabled during the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on 1 August, said Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communication and information technology (IT).
He was speaking at a seminar of the mBillionth South Asia Mobile and Telecom Congress organized by the Digital Empowerment Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India on Saturday. Mint was media partner to the awards.
“The comments from all the stakeholders have been received and there are some cosmetic changes which are being done,” said a top official of the department of information technology (DIT), who did not want to be identified. The official added the Bill will be sent this week or the next to the cabinet for approval.
The Bill mandates that all government departments, ministries and state governments automate their citizen-based services, so these can be offered electronically.
It includes in its ambit any dealing a citizen would have with the government, including submissions of all kinds of forms and applications, delivery of licences or permits, and receipt or payment of money.
The overarching aim of the law is to reduce discretion on the part of government employees, making governance rule-based and bringing in more transparency in dealing with citizens.
Neel Ratan, executive director of consultancy firm PwC said that while the whole exercise is a step in the right direction, citizens should be involved in determining which services they want digitized. “Citizens should have a larger say in determination and prioritization of services, a right which has been embedded with government.” he said.
According to experts, the Bill is important as it defines a clear time frame in which the services have to be digitized, which is five years from the date of the Bill becoming a law. The deadline is extendable by three years if a reason is provided in writing.
All government departments will have to clearly define the services that will be digitized and the time frame required to complete the process within six months of the law being passed. But the current draft excludes DIT’s original proposal for a complete phasing out of manual delivery of services.
“There were several reservations about phasing out of manual delivery and after receiving the feedback we decided to exclude that part and include assisted access for that section of society which might be willing to get services only through the government departments,” said a second DIT official, who too did not want to be identified.
In 2006, the ministry of communication and IT unveiled its national e-governance plan, which envisages automating the delivery of key government services. But just a few of the 27 mission-mode projects have been completed. The execution of some has been delayed and the rest are still at a planning stage.
The delay or lack of initiative on the part of some departments to digitize in the absence of a law is the underlying reason behind the Bill. Officials equate the Bill to the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 in its impact, as it will force all government departments and ministries to digitize themselves.
“The feedback from the private sector and the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) has been that five years is too long a deadline for digitization, while the feedback from the government agencies has been the opposite. However, we are sticking to our deadline,” the second official said.
According to Nasscom, an IT industry lobby, the e-governance opportunity in the country is expected to be worth $9 billion (around `40,000 crore) between 2010 and 2013. This Bill is expected to add to the potential.
Mandatory digitization is expected to create a demand for maintenance services, cyber security and data protection, which could create a huge demand for IT in the country.
Another advantage of digitization will be that more people will be motivated to avail government services due to the sheer ease of use. For instance, the number of tax returns filed jumped 67% to 5.1 million in 2010, when it was made digital.
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