The
Times of India: Varanasi: Thursday, October 18, 2012.
Information
about government-run schemes and programmes in any particular village of Sant
Ravidas Nagar (Bhadohi) district would be available on the Internet through its
'e-village directory'. There is no need to apply for information under the RTI
Act as all the developments in a village would be available on the web.
In a bid to
create transparency in implementation of various government schemes Bhadoi
district administration has launched the directory, which is perhaps first of
its kind in the state. "The e-village directory is a small step toward disseminating
information about various ongoing schemes in any particular village of the
district at a click of the mouse," Bhadohi district magistrate Amrit
Tripathi told TOI. In its initial phase of implementation posting all the work
of 12 departments, it plans to carry details of all government schemes,
information about village assets, government buildings in the village as well
as contact details of all the village level government workers like lekhpal,
village secretary, ASHA, ANM, farmer friend, village chowkidar. "We hope
the work of all departments would be included in the directory in a
month," he said.
Since village
(gram panchayat) is the unit of most of governmental schemes and development
plans are also prepared on the basis of needs at the grass roots level, posting
correct information about all the projects at the village level is of utmost
importance. The e village directory is a one-stop window. Information related
to all work undertaken and funds made available, the man-days of work created
in various jobs (pond-digging, road construction) and work status under MNREGA,
the name of every beneficiary of various schemes of the social welfare
department, equipment distributed to beneficiaries (by name) by the department
of handicapped-welfare department, the number of schools, the number of
students and the name of teachers in each school and the status of mid day meal
schemes all can be obtained by anybody, anytime and from anywhere.
The e village
directory is a one-stop solution for accessing all the details about a
particular village in the district. Once complete, the e village directory
would serve multifarious purposes. On one hand it would give a detailed
overview of all the government schemes (whether beneficiary based or benefiting
community as a whole) in a particular village and on the other would serve as a
tool for social audit of all the government schemes running in the village.
It would
serve as a potent tool in the hand of common citizens, putting the
implementation of all the government schemes directly under public scrutiny,
thus creating more transparency in implementing various schemes. Social audit
can be in the sense of measuring, understanding, reporting and ultimately
improving an organisation's social and ethical performance which will narrow
gaps between vision/goal and reality, between efficiency and effectiveness.
Besides, the
e village directory would serve as a powerful tool for effective village level
planning and in framing the district plan. The underlying principle behind
framing the district plan is to avoid overlapping and over budgeting in
different schemes and among different departments while in the basic village
plan it will ensure that the factor of equity of distribution of various
schemes is taken in. By use of e village directory, the district administration
before giving final shape to the district plan can ensure this by looking into
each village individually and checking for the coverage of various schemes and
infrastructure in that particular village in general and the district as a
whole.
It is also a
ready-reckoner for the district administration and hence can be used for spot
verification of different schemes.
This
directory would serve as a permanent on-line asset register/record of a particular
village and with provision for continuous updating of various new schemes and
also the newer beneficiaries of ongoing schemes. "It would work like an
RTI tool, and we have proposed to expand its domain on the pattern of MIS
feeding in MNREGA works," said Tripathi adding that for this purpose
employees at village level would be trained for which funding from the state
and central government would be needed.
The
objective;
· The
e-village directory will disseminate information about various ongoing schemes
in any particular village of the district at a click of the mouse
· It
would serve as a tool in the hand of common citizens, putting implementation of
all the government schemes directly under public scrutiny, creating more
transparency
· On
one hand it would give a detailed overview of all the government schemes
(whether beneficiary based or benefiting community as a whole) in a particular
village and on the other would serve as a tool for social audit of all the
government schemes running in the village
· It
would work like an RTI tool, and we have proposed to expand its domain on the
pattern of MIS feeding in MNREGA works
· The
purpose of the district plan is to avoid overlapping and over budgeting in
different schemes in various departments
· The
basic village plan will ensure that the factor of equity of distribution of
various schemes is taken in
· Information
related to all work undertaken and funds made available, the man-days of work
created in various jobs (pond-digging, road construction) and work status under
MNREGA, the name of every beneficiary of various schemes of the social welfare
department, equipment distributed to beneficiaries (by name) by the department
of handicapped-welfare department, the number of schools, the number of
students and the name of teachers in each school and the status of mid day meal
schemes all can be obtained by anybody, anytime and from anywhere
The e-village
directory is a small step toward disseminating information about various
ongoing schemes in any particular village of the district at a click of the
mouse.
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