TOI: Chennai: Tuesday: Feb 24, 2015
The city will be the first in India to have a 'dashboard' on the lines of London and New York for its civic officers to monitor public work effectively. Corporation of Chennai will inaugurate the system this week.
The new system will map all roads, pavements, bridges and public toilets, with details of the contractor assigned. "The system also ensures systemic evaluation of civic officials based on key performance indicators. It will also help meet deadlines and hold contractors responsible for delay," said an official.
"The dashboard acts as a common information base across departments on a single platform. Now we do not have a clear strategy because of lack of documentation. Many officials are confused about how to start and, once they do, how to proceed. The new system will make the job easier for junior engineers and revenue inspectors. It will have details of their responsibilities and allow senior officials to give instructions," said a corporation official.
The civic body had signed an MoU with NGO Transparent Chennai to help it develop a dashboard to integrate data on public work. It was the pet project of joint commissioner Vijay Pingale who was transferred to the industries department after his decision to penalise erring road contractors. In the absence of such a system, some roads are being left out of the plan, while some others are repeatedly re-laid.
RTI activists welcomed the civic body's plan. "The corporation should make the dashboard public. The civic body often delays and denies information under the RTI Act citing lack of documents. We expect the new system to boost accountability," said M Thuyamurthy, an RTI activist.
Some residents said the civic body should implement its proposal to introduce an online file tracking system. "This will help us locate files and learn which officials are delaying them. A single window to access various services would mean fewer visits to corporation offices," said K Kumar, a resident of T Nagar.
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