I had a dream that remained unfulfilled throughout my profession as a civil servant. This dream was primarily based on my expertise as head of the Challenge Monitoring Group (PMG) arrange in 2013. Consequent to alleged scams, resolution making within the Authorities had come to a grinding halt, adversely impacting clearance of tasks. Utilizing expertise, a paperless and clear mechanism was put in place to fast-track clearances. The concept was to influence respective ministries and departments to take a call, not essentially in favour of the applicant. It labored. Greater than Rs 5 lakh crore value of tasks had been granted clearance in lower than 15 months. One Cupboard Minister even misplaced her job for sitting on recordsdata. This gave me the concept expertise could possibly be used to nearly remove all of the harassment that the widespread faces whereas visiting any public workplace. It remained a dream as I moved out to the Coal Ministry on promotion.
It was an opportunity assembly and dialogue with Gaurav Goel, Founder and CEO, Samagra that I found that he and his dedicated crew had been within the course of of creating my dream come true.
For the common Indian citizen, the Authorities system presents a labyrinth. From info on present schemes and companies, eligibility standards, to the precise means of availing a scheme or a service, residents normally resign themselves to endeavor an arduous journey if they’ve to have interaction with the Authorities in any type. Is not this a tragic state of affairs on this planet’s largest democracy? Particularly when this needn’t be the case in any respect.
As a rule, we give in to the assumption that the established order will proceed to stay abysmal so far as governance is anxious. A lot of this perception is fuelled by our propensity to devour and disseminate solely detrimental information and happenings.
Nonetheless, far-reaching modifications are solely attainable if we consider that issues can change and take decisive steps in direction of creating that change. One such instance of change is the Authorities of Haryana’s Digital Haryana programme, began with the purpose of driving key IT initiatives and creating a digital roadmap for the state. Samagra, a mission-driven governance consulting agency has been supporting the State Authorities in designing and implementing this digital roadmap.
Whereas a number of initiatives are a part of the Digital Haryana programme, its centrepiece has been Antyodaya Saral — a mission conceived to rework G2C (Authorities-to-Citizen) scheme and repair supply. The Authorities of Haryana provides greater than 600 schemes and companies for residents throughout greater than 40 departments. These embody a variety of necessities from the availability of a brand new electrical energy connection, subsidy for establishing dairy models, marriage registration, to an utility for a ration card. The imaginative and prescient for Antyodaya Saral was essentially altering how residents avail these schemes and companies, and within the course of, have interaction with the Authorities system.
Began in July 2017, over a interval of 1 yr, the State Authorities labored with NIC Authorities of India and NIC Haryana to carry greater than 500 schemes and companies from greater than 35 departments to a web based portal referred to as Antyodaya Saral. In essence, this meant {that a} resident of Haryana might apply to all these companies and schemes on the portal itself with out having to run from pillar to put up in several authorities places of work to avail them. In addition to the web platform, there are 117 Authorities-run state-of-the-art service centres at headquarter/tehsil degree which give the identical schemes/companies and 6,000 plus widespread service centres on the village/ward degree in Haryana. All related info similar to paperwork wanted, eligibility standards, is out there on the portal itself in addition to at these centres. A single state-wide helpline has additionally been established with the purpose to resolve all service supply associated queries and grievances. Functions are anticipated to be processed as per designated timelines notified underneath the Haryana Proper to Service Act 2014. To make sure accountability, a public dashboard permits division officers to view compliance with Proper to Service timelines at state in addition to district degree. To herald transparency, when a citizen applies on the portal, she receives a monitoring quantity which can be utilized to test the standing of the applying at numerous ranges of processing.
Of the five hundred+ schemes and companies accessible on Antyodaya Saral, 229 schemes and companies throughout 12 departments have been introduced on-line for the primary time. A couple of lakh queries and grievances are dealt with by the helpline each month. For the reason that platform’s launch in 2018, the Authorities has acquired multiple crore functions on it and processed 88.2 per cent of them inside timelines notified underneath the ‘Haryana Proper to Service Act 2014’. Designed to attain accessibility, comfort and effectivity, Antyodaya Saral is an instance of a authorities resolving to make citizen-service supply seamless and utilizing expertise to grasp this goal. And an funding in such systemic reforms pays dividends in probably the most attempting circumstances. For instance, after the COVID-19-induced nationwide lockdown was introduced, Saral was used to challenge motion passes to residents for emergencies/ important companies. The Saral helpline, launched initially to assist residents register queries/grievances associated to Authorities companies/schemes, was transformed right into a COVID-relief helpline for casual sector staff. After the Central Authorities allowed partial resumption of financial actions, Haryana directed all industries/industrial institutions to use for passes to hunt approval for resuming operations by way of the Saral platform. As such this reform, initiated in 2017, helped make citizen-service supply easy and environment friendly in a fashion that may not have been envisioned three years earlier.
This was solely made attainable by way of the collaboration of numerous companions introduced collectively by the Chief Minister’s workplace — Central Authorities, State Authorities, NIC, native our bodies, non-government entities, tutorial establishments, particular goal autos (CSC SPV) and IT societies. All 22 districts and 38 departments underneath the management of Deputy Commissioner and Administrative Secretaries have labored tirelessly on Antyodaya Saral over the past 3 years to make it what it’s immediately.
Such a change doesn’t need to be costly both. As a substitute of roping in a brand new and dear vendor, the Digital Haryana crew labored with the Authorities of India’s in-house Service Plus platform that was simple to make use of, could possibly be configured and built-in with present tech methods and was scalable. It additionally had the options required to design an end-to-end workflow for departments which did not have correct on-line methods. This technique of leveraging in-house experience ensured that the mission could possibly be delivered on time, at low value and with full possession of the involved departments. Any state seeking to streamline its public service supply system ought to research the Haryana mannequin. Going ahead, Haryana is seeking to make service supply paperless, faceless and proactive.
As governance turns into more and more advanced with the necessity for extra data-backed resolution making, it’s time governments embrace expertise to make e-governance the brand new regular. Antyodaya Saral is a real instance of ‘Nexus of Good’. It’s a mannequin that rides on public-private partnership and has the potential of being replicated and scaled.
Views expressed are private
