Punjab local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday called on Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys to discuss the transformation through e-governance mode in all the 167 urban local bodies (UlBs) of the state.
Sidhu also took up the issue of operationalizing the Infosys campus in Mohali.
Nilekani assured that inspite of growth rate showing downward trend from 35 to five percent in IT sector, he would speak to Infosys CEO to expedite the project. He said that though this project would take some time, he assured action in this regard.
It is significant to mention that Infosys has a campus in Mohali spread over 55 acres of area which is still not functional.
The discussion between the two centered around enabling delivery of the government promise of ‘Captain Government at your doorstep’. In this context, e-governance will play a critical role by increasing transparency, simplifying service delivery and driving efficiency.
For the same, Sidhu pledged sufficient manpower and capacity building to drive change across the state. The entire exercise will result in manifold increase in revenue collection which in turn will enable delivery of high quality of service to the citizen.
Sidhu also reaffirmed the importance of digital service delivery to citizens, with an initial focus on improved lighting, controlling mosquito menace, managing stray dog menace, improved waste management and reducing potholes.
Nilekani, drawing on his cross sectoral experience with digital transformation at scale, concurred on the need for capacity building to ensure long term statewide benefits arising out of this program.
An MoU was signed in February with eGovernments Foundation, also co-founded by Nandan Nilekani, to provide solutions for e-governance of Urban local Bodies (UlBs) throughout Punjab.
Egovernments foundation since its founding in 2003, has enabled urban transformation in 325-plus UlBs and has now partnered with Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC) for the provision of 67 services online under 12 modules namely Property Tax, Water and Sewerage Management, Complaints and Grievance, licensing, Fire Service, Verification, Birth and Death, UlB web portal, Mobile App, State and UlB Dashboards, Payroll and Financial Accounting and a Public Grievances App would be rolled out pertaining to these services enabling the people to lodge their complaints in case they encounter any problem.
Sidhu added that 500 IT savvy experts would be hired through TCS for the capacity building of UlBs. Besides, 10 experts each would be deployed with each of the municipal corporations while five experts each would be assigned to each medium level municipal councils and two each for the each smaller municipal councils/nagar panchayats, he added.