s

Enabling EfficientAdministration at theDistrict Levelthrough ICTA Study of Lokvani project in Uttar Pradesh

2008

Rahul PathakTata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

7/1/2008

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Dedicated to the people of Uttar Pradesh….

Of whom I am one….

A crab along with a swan and a pike, set out to drag a wagon along the road

It was not their load was difficult to move;

But the upward strained the swan, toward skies above,

The crab kept stepping back, the pike was for the pond.

And which was right or wrong, I neither know nor care:

I only know the wagon’s still there.

- Ivan Krylov

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

A study like this, which spreads over such a vast geographical area and at such a micro level, is

seldom a result of single person’s effort. Many persons have provided me with advice and support

as the study went through its peaks and troughs. This acknowledgement is a small gesture of

gratitude to them. Some helped me professionally with their time and sagacious advice and others

with a personal and emotional support during this period which saw lots of crests and troughs.

Firstly, I thank my guide Mr. Ashwani Kumar for supporting me during the course of study, I am

also thankful to Dr. R. N. Sharma, Dr. Bino Paul, Dr. Abdul Shaban, and Dr. Arwind Tiwari who have

provided essential inputs on various academic issues.

I am thankful to Government of Uttar Pradesh, National Informatics Centre, and District

Administrations of various districts. I am also thankful to various officials of the Government of

Uttar Pradesh in the secretariat, Yojana Bhavan and UPDESCO for their support. I thank the

technical directors at NIC, Mr. A.P. Singh, Mr. Anshu Rohatgi and Mr. Avneesh Gupta for providing

me with valuable insights into the various projects. I also thank Mr. Amod Kumar, Dr. Manoj Dixit,

Dr. A. K Singh, Dr. G. S. Baghel, Dr. Pratima Pathak, Dr. Ashutosh Mishra, Dr. Shashi Shukla, Mr. R B

Ram, Mr. Suneet Dwivedi and many more for their valuable insights.

Lastly, I thank the people who define my life….

My family of five angels…

My friends…

And many more….

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PREFACE:

This project began as a part of my research related to the relations between State, Good

Governance, development and Information Technology. The enquiry was mainly targeted at the

understanding of the essential operational dynamics of everyday administration at the district

level and an analysis of role that could be played by introduction of information and

communication technologies. The district administration in a state like Uttar Pradesh, which is so

much politically active, is a complex process. Everything that happens at the district level is in one

way or the other linked to the political processes at the local, state and central level politics.

Lokvani project was chosen due to its unique approach and potential to truly make e-governance a

reality in an area supposed to be backward and aloof from the general technological progress.

Every project or endeavor at any levels comes with a set of inadequacies and criticisms, as a

perfect project is seldom implemented. When we tend to look into a project from critical

perspective we tend to overlook the vision behind the project. When I was working on this project

I realized that there is a lack of a comprehensive document which captures the spirit behind

Lokvani. Thus, it became essential to document the project in a comprehensive perspective.

Thus, I have approached this report from two perspectives. Firstly, an analysis of what are the

objectives or intentions behind the overall vision of the Lokvani project. The second part is a

simultaneous analysis of various issues operational on the field and a practical picture of the wide

differences that exist between the theoretical constructs and practical administration.

A large part of the report is directly taken from the official documents related to the projects,

which I failed to provide proper references. This should not be taken as a violation of copyrights.

Author is solely responsible for any discrepancy in the document.

July, 2008, RAHUL PATHAK

*The author could be contacted at rahul24pathak@gmail.com or Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………3

Preface……………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………….………………4

Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...6

District Administration and Bureaucracy………………………….…………..……………………………………………8

Public Grievances……………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………13

State profile of Uttar Pradesh…………………………………………………………………………………………..………17

District Profile of Sitapur………………………………………………………………………………………...……………….20

The Method of data collection…………………………………………………………………………………………………22

The Lokvani………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 23

(a) The Genesis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…24

(b) The Process……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…25

(c) The Services offered under Lokvani………………………………………………………………………………26

(d) The stakeholders in Lokvani………………………………………………………………………………………….27

(e) Infrastructure and Costs……………………………………………………………….………………………………30

(f) Implementation Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………………….33

(g) Some Screen Shots………………………………..………………………………………………………………………34

(h) The Advantages…………………………………..………………………………………………………….…………….39

(i) Challenges faced…………………………………………………………………………………………..……………….41

(j) Results Achieved…………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….42

(k) Replication…………………………………………………………………………………………………..……….………45

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………...47

References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………48

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INTRODUCTION:

The development of the societies is often synonymous with the development of formal institutions

and organizations which govern the operational processes in the societies. In India, in the post

independence era we embarked on a journey of creation of numerous such institutions related to

almost every domain. The role of public organizations assumed importance not only in

governance and regulation but also in economic and social development. In the post liberalization

era, the private sector assumed significant importance but to a large extent they also depend on

the efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations, not to say of the poor masses whose

existence in a major way is dependent on the government and public systems. The district is the

most important single unit of administration in which the government comes into intimate contact

with the citizens. Thus, the district administration can play a major role in directing the socio-

economic changes. The district administration and bureaucracies have been severely criticized in

their method of operation and lack to commitment to the development of the masses. Emergence

of Information and Communication technologies and their integration with the process of

governance could be a solution and many parts of the world stand testimony to this fact. The

discourse around introduction of technology in governance has always been focusing on the need

for strong governance as the centre of operation of such projects; the technology is just a

facilitating tool in the macro-process. The idea is to improve the day to day operation of the

governance procedures and strengthening of the processes involving implementation. Various

electronic governance projects have been implemented throughout the world which has brought

dynamic changes in the way administrative systems interact and serve the masses. In India largely

such projects were restricted to the urban pockets of development in metropolitan cities

especially in the southern states. The rural belts have seen penetration of ICTs through certain

business remodeling concepts like e-choupal and Gyandoot but largely the interventions have

failed to make a larger impact on governance procedures as such. In a state like Uttar Pradesh

with a low socio-economic profile and complex administrative procedures it was difficult to

conceive and implement the e-governance project. National Informatics Centre the major

implementer of e-governance projects in Uttar-Pradesh has played a major role in these projects.

The NIC holds an opinion that the political institutions determine the success and failure of any

project and the people shift to use any user–friendly application if it suits there interests and

serves them, irrespective of their socio-economic profile. Also effective leadership can bring major

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changes to the way administrative systems operate in the state machinery. The Lokvani project

somehow got favorable support on all these fronts. It was conceived as an online public grievance

redressal model with a two-pronged approach. Firstly, the improvement of the speed of the

process and generating accountability mechanisms and secondly, the virtual network of

administration up to the Nyaya Panchayat level, thus reducing the physical barriers of space and

time between the people and the administration, and also between the various echelons in the

administrative set up. The project was based on simple technology applications and was very user

friendly. The process was designed keeping local conditions in mind, thus the project got

momentum from the very beginning. Strong support from the media popularized the project. The

project was a brain-child of a particular administrator thus till the time he was in the district, the

project continued to grow. The electronic governance projects in India have failed to a very large

amount due relocation of the people who began them, since the processes are not institutionalized

in short tenures, the shifting of people creates a problem. Similar fate was faced by the Lokvani

project. Also, when it comes to replication among many factors internal issues within the Indian

bureaucracy takes a toll on the success of the replication plans. Thus, there are various factors

which could be analyzed when it comes to implementation. In this report I have tried to address

two issues in particular first is the study of district administration and secondly process of

Lokvani project, its advantages etc. Simultaneously, I have highlighted some of the inefficiencies of

the implementation phase and subsequent deterioration, which could form the basis of further

investigation in terms of an analysis of inadequacies of the district administrative systems & e-

governance projects at the implementation level.

It is necessary to understand the issues that operate within the Indian bureaucracy and how it

impacts the everyday social relations with the people whom they are expected to serve. What are

human capital issues and the reasons for the inefficient functioning of the bureaucracy? Some of

these issues I have tried to touch upon. Towards the end I have done a small analysis of the

implementation and replication issues in Lokvani at the state level and issues involved in the

same. The Lokvani project and similar projects of electronic governance are aimed at improving

the everyday state relations with the masses but it is to be strictly maintained that they are just

the tools; it is the willingness of the state machinery as a whole which would determine the overall

success or failures of such efforts. Thus, the need is to strengthen the state and its decision taking

structures and bringing innovation and accountability at the top which is subsequently bound to

be transmitted to all the levels of state machinery in due course of time.

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DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION AND BUREAUCRACY:

District administration is one of the most important parts of the Indian administrative system and

has been one of the most powerful institutions. During the colonial regime, it was rigorously built

up to bring the totality of government closer to the people. It was hierarchical sub-system of the

state administration performing the specific tasks assigned to it. The head of civil administration

in a district is a collector who is also a district magistrate. She/he is a regional officer but she/he

represents the government in the district in practically all spheres of its activities. She/he is

assisted by a number of other bureaucrats in various departments. All the officers assist him in

different branches of administration such as land records, collection of revenues, policy

implementation etc. He is also the ex-officio district election officer. He is also responsible for

planning and development of the district plans and assists district planning committees in the

budgetary processes. The office of the collector is called the collectorate. The other major

functions of collector include maintenance of law and order, Inspection of Jails, supervise

cadastral survey and land records, revenue administration etc. Thus, the office of the collector is

burdened with a number of activities and enormous powers are vested in the collector. Thus,

individual competence of the District Magistrate is determined to play the most significant role in

the way administration operates in the district. District is further divided into tahsils for the

purposes of realization and collection of land revenue administration. Tahsils are the units of Sub

divisions, and sub divisional magistrate performs similar functions as that of district collector at

the tahsil level. He is assisted by a number of land revenue officials like Tahsildar, Naib-Tahsildar,

Kanoongo and lastly the lekhpal. Lekhpal is the last in the revenue chain and is a village level

functionary. Thus a complicated network of officials operates at a district level in a hierarchical set

up. Collector is solely responsible for every activity that happens in a district. He is expected to

tour the district for about 90 days and especially in each Tahsil during the rainy season, to look

into the condition of peasantry, settle disputes, and see to the implementation of development

schemes. Similarly, sub divisional magistrates are expected to travel for about 60 days. With the

growing needs of administration the capability expansion of the district collector is under

question. These responsibilities become practically impossible for the single person to administer.

It is also essential that the public administration should not be restricted to a top to down

approach serving the needs of the political leadership at the local, state and central levels. The

administration should be accountable to the public whom it serves. At present the administrators

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and the representatives either share feelings of hostility towards each other and believe that the

failure of one is a result of failure of others or operate on a predefined line of nexus serving the

vested interests of the coterie thus formed. Collaboration and support between the administrator

and representative which at the same time is consistent with the welfare and development of

people is generally absent. Also, the understanding of their own tasks is very poor and both

depend to a large extent on the coterie of subordinates around them, which is a full army of yes-

men. In that case it needs a matured and rational administrator who can handle the responsibility

for the tasks assigned to him. When the overall administration is centered around one person and

the overall district administration tries to fulfill the vision of the collector, it is his vision that is

essential to define how the things move on in the districts.

On the other hand, In Independent India there has been a rush for the postings in the secretariat of

the state and the central governments. Successful field personnel and quickly rushed into

secretariat tasks. This tendency is further accentuated because of two other reasons; firstly the

experiment in decentralization has in fact resulted in higher measure of centralization. Secondly,

more talented people are required in decision making positions in the state administration and

more people are attracted to it for it offers power and prestige as well as facilities of a metro

dwelling space. This in the long run leads to weakening of the administrative systems at the

district level. As the competencies shift to the secretariats and ministries, the centre of

administration also shifts from the district to the ministries, thus weakening the most important

link in the administration where the real action takes place. Thus, there is a distinct need to make

collectorate positions more attractive and to have administrators with successful careers and

considerable experience posted in the field positions that would be strengthen the administrative

machinery. Apart from it one of the key issues is to revive the bureaucratic systems also so that

the good people are not caught up in stagnant systems. The dynamism of the young officers should

be harnessed upon; I encountered a number of good people who are caught up in bad systems.

Once, a distinguished administrator, at the end of a long and eventful career, gave expression to

his anguish over the fact that the administrators who started as very literate persons end up as

semi-literates. The pressure on the administrators has mounted enormously in recent years and

generally they don’t get a say at the policy-making level. An antipathy to study and research has

now been deeply ingrained in the administrative traditions. This may sound paradoxical but it is

true, the colonial system produced administrators some of whom could be considered super

literates, who pioneered research in many branches of knowledge, relating to people whom they

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administered. Now, the system which is most affected by the transfers, (in Uttar Pradesh statistics

being abnormally high) leaves no space for the administrators to understand the people they

relate to. Also, expansion of the range, scope and complexity of the public services brought about

rapid urbanization, has led to unprecedented changes in the way we approach our administrative

set ups and vice versa. The district administrative set ups are not able to revive their work

patterns and have also had problems in responding to the tools provided till date. It could be

debated whether the human capital failures in terms of responding to the technology and other

tools is the personal failure of the administrative system or the local political will which is to

change as their local positions as the power centres could be diluted. The district administrative

systems work more on political will and a strong political bureaucracy has evolved at all the levels.

The private interest of this nexus supersedes the public good. It is not only these issues that are

impeding upon the bureaucratic structures, in order to understand the holistic picture; we need to

analyze the issues from socio-cultural perspectives embedded in the local systems. A critical

analysis of the values, behavioral aspects and attitudes of the Indian bureaucratic machinery and

the administrative system at the district level is necessary to understand the larger failures. The

mindset of the Indian administration has to be studied in the perspective of the bureaucracy

existing within a series of Chinese boxes. The immediate box is that of the bureaucratic ethos

which itself exists within the box of the governmental environment. This, however, is placed

within the larger box of the socio-economic-politico-cultural environment of India. Again, the

individual bureaucrat is himself enclosed within yet another box: the particular socio-economic

and cultural matrix of which he is a product and which exists at the core of his thinking and

feeling. The incredible complexity of these multiple layers of the bureaucrat’s make-up has to be

analyzed and understood if an effective intervention for change is to be made. In most government

organizations, there are no shortages of analytical reports or action plans. External agencies and

internal groups have often studied key aspects of the organizational functioning and come up with

recommendations for improvements. Training programmes and workshops have been conducted

to discuss important ideas. If ‘talk’ was an indicator of change, then the progress would be

considered remarkable. But a common lament is that very little of such prescriptions and

pronouncements get translated into practice. An examination of the different causes of this large

gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it would bring us to the issue of mindset and

culture and it is according to that we approach our administrative reforms. I hereby deal with the

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various issues involved step by step to understand the whole process of requisite behavioral

changes.

In order to understand the overall process it is critical that we identify the mindsets which prevail

in the administrative systems and what are the employee’s perceptions. Some of the major key

issues I was able to identify were as follows:

(a) High degree of preoccupation with day to day routines, which in turn hampers strategic

thinking.

(b) Lack of foresight, thus just focusing on immediate requirements rather than on bigger

picture.

(c) An extra comfort level with status quo and seeped in resistance to change.

(d) Helplessness about constraints, thus shedding of responsibility as a consequence of

situations.

(e) Conformity prevails over commitment, excessive reliance on directive style of work.

(f) Performance exhibited not as a habit but as a response to emergency and crisis situations.

(g) Lack of anticipatory and participatory learning, appreciation, focus on priorities.

(h) Little mutual trust, respect, and friendship in teams.

(i) Lack of open, frank and free communication.

(j) Lack of effectiveness in managing mistakes

(k) A general unwillingness to take initiative.

(l) Lack of sensitivity to internal and external customer satisfaction.

These issues pertaining to the stagnancy in the mindsets further manifests itself in the form of

various day to day activities and problems of our Indian administrative system:

(1) Lack of professionalism and poor capacity building.

(2) Inefficient incentive system.

(3) Outmoded and restrictive rules and procedures.

(4) Systemic inconsistencies in promotion and empanelment.

(5) Lack of adequate transparency and accountability procedures.

(6) Arbitrary and whimsical transfers - insecurity in tenures impedes institutionalization.

(7) Political interference and administrative acquiescence.

(8) Gradual erosion in values and ethics.

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In addition to the points raised above, there is also a need to realign our objectives and goals to

make some major shifts in our values some of which I would like to mention here:

(1) The administrative machinery and civil services have been observed to be committed to

the internal dynamics of organization rather than the public, this outward customer

approach to public administration is integral to achieve the desired levels of efficiency.

(2) The core values governing the behavioral aspects of the administrators should be integrity

and impartiality in the service delivery. An attitude of neutrality towards the ongoing

changes is one of the key reasons that the required changes are not able to seep in.

(3) The administrators should make a reversal of approach from that of follower to a creator to

introduce an innovation quotient in the organization concerned. The leaders should

emerge from within the organizations rather an appointing tendency.

The orientation should make a transition from that of status-quo preserving the traditional

redundant values and work-culture to that of a sophisticated orientation towards continuous

change as it approaches the new requirements. Major changes require substantial amount of

resources to be committed over a period of time. These are not just in terms of finances. A major

requirement would be in terms of leadership attention consistently over a period of time to make

changes happen. When the leadership is busy with routines and fire-fighting, their attention and

support would be either spread too thinly over several efforts, or would be missing altogether.

Every change requires a certain minimum level of time, energy and attention to succeed. If the

interventions are not of the right dosage, the efforts may create a ‘flash in the pan’, but no lasting

change. Also, change happens over a period of time. As it is a process, not an event, feelings of

ownership and involvement are critical for success. In other words, a limited commitment system

can manage an ‘event’ (like an emergency situation or a crisis), not a ‘process’ that unfolds over a

period of time and therefore, requires persistent and consistent set of actions over time. When we

do not invest sufficient efforts in building ownership, involvement and commitment of people at

operating levels, there is little hope that we would be able to elicit and major commitments of

time, energy and effort from them to make implementation successful. When the projects for

reinventing government like e-governance are introduced it is essential that they address all these

issues, because any project which forms a direct interface with the people in the administration

cannot exist in isolation to these issues. It is of paramount importance to address these issues in

consonance with the structural changes that are being brought about.

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PUBLIC GREIVANCES:

During the past few years the citizen’s dissatisfaction with the administration has mounted up

significantly. The increase in public grievances is a result or rising expectations and education and

the administration is bound to cater to the requirements of the citizen. Also, the state today

provides far more services than in the past. While efficiency and discipline among public

employees have gone down the activities of the government, particularly the development tasks

have expanded in scope and scale and there has been no commensurate strengthening of the

administrative machinery. Adequate machinery for the redress of citizen’s grievances is essential

for several reasons. The inertia of the administrative machinery is not able to recognize the overall

objective of administration. They owe (if at all) allegiance to the prescribed rules and manuals or

to established processes, forgetting the very fact that administration exists not for itself but the

citizens. “…….Administration like most things is, in the final analysis a human problem – to deal

with human beings, not with some statistical data……there is a danger that pure administrators at

the top – not so much at the bottom – because they came into contact with human beings – may

come to regard human beings as mere expectations. The administrators may think in abstract of

the people he deals with, come to conclusions which are justifiable apparently but which miss the

human element. After all whatever department of government you deal with, it is ultimately a

problem of human beings, and the moment we forget them, we are driven away from reality.”1

Secondly, if the citizens’ grievances are allowed to mount up, their dissatisfaction with the

administration is likely to add to the existing social unrest and tensions. The phenomenon of

growing social discontent which erupts into sporadic acts of violence, strikes etc. finds sustenance

in citizens’ frustration with the administration. Corruption in the administrative units is also

linked closely to the inefficient institutions of public-grievance redressal. “….the problem of

maintaining integrity in administration cannot be viewed in isolation from the general

administrative processes. In order to deal effectively with the problem, it is necessary to take into

account the root cause of which the most important is the wide discretionary power which has to

be exercised by the executive in carrying on the complicated work of modern administration.”2

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

1. Jawaharlal Nehru, “Administration - A human problem” address delivered at the inaugural meeting of the Indian

Institute of public administration, New Delhi, 29 March 1954, The Indian journal of public administration, January-March,

1955, P.2

2. D.O. No. 1/4/63- CPC dated 22 February 1963 from K Santhanam. Chairman, Committee on prevention of corruption, to

Lal Bahadur Shastri, Home Minister, Government of India.

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The citizen-administration relationship in a democratic polity will remain harmonious and cordial

only if both the parties are able to understand the feelings and the difficulties faced by each other.

However it has been observed that the administrators seem to view the people generally as

illiterate, ignorant, resourceless, incapable of initiative and action and unable to understand the

rules and the procedures as well as the requirements and possibilities of modern administration.

On the other hand the general feeling in the mind of the people is that they are concerned more

with the satisfaction of their own goals rather than the goals of a democratic welfare state. It is

also assumed that bureaucracy at the middle and the lower level levels is more inefficient and ill

equipped to respond effectively to the requirements and needs of the citizens3.

A common complaint against the administrators is that either they are not available or they are

reluctant to meet the public in general. In the most government offices as the common experience

goes, it is very difficult to meet the officers directly. Normally, the citizens have to go through a

series of hierarchical processes to get a redressal of one’s grievances from the officers. The offices

of the Lokayukta and some citizen grievance cells have also been marred by inefficient procedures

thus result in just a transfer of grievance from one set of officials to the other. Thus, the

administrative reforms should aim at addressing these issues. Although, we can get a series of

administrative reforms initiatives which target at these issues, when it comes to the

implementation of the same, it is really an issue to be addressed. The problem with our approach

to administrative reforms is that we see them as an event and a unit of problem rather than as a

process. Like, if the immense data which is generated in the form of Lokvani complaints is

analyzed in a proper manner, we can get hold of almost all the existing problems at the local level

which people face on the local level. A complaint should not be just treated as a complaint rather

as a tool to see a larger picture of the existing process which leads to that complaint. These set of

complaints could be even used for local level planning, identification of corrupt officials, regional

variations in the problems. It could be even used as an interface with the citizens to directly

interact with the larger processes rather than through a channel of panchayats, irrespective of the

local power relations. Modification and simplification of the rules, regulations and working

procedures, decentralization of power to the lower levels and adequate publicity of the changes in

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Bhatnagar &Jain, “ Administrative response to citizen grievances” in Bureaucracy, Politics and Administrative

Challenge, Pattnayak R. (Ed), 1994, Anmol, New Delhi

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the rules and regulations is must. Efficient and proper trainings, reward mechanisms, frequent

meetings with the lower level officials and constant supervision, personal contact with the citizens

etc are some of the essential requirements for effective public grievance redressal which in some

way or the other is fulfilled by the Lokvani. The office of the Lokayukta which is responsible for

the monitoring and handling the public grievances should be entrusted with the monitoring of the

Lokvani complaints at the state level. Most of the respondents attributed the inadequacies to the

lack of state level monitoring of the complaints. A state level node should be responsible for

handling the complaints which have not been taken care of at the district level for a number of

times. The quality of disposal assumes the most important feature when it comes to public

grievances. The smart officials do away with their responsibilities in a very crude manner or they

create a way out to achieve their private interests, although the quality of disposal is the biggest

determining factor it is easy to resolve just by effective monitoring as the database is always

available on net and is accessible to everyone. The public grievance leads to frustration among the

masses, if not taken care of properly: The answer of some of the respondents give an insight into

the level of exploitation sometimes they have to undergo.

Respondent 1, who has been closely associated to the process and is an active member of the

project as a kiosk owner said in reply to the question about the attitude of officials that:

“The officials at the district level who directly deal with public behave as if they are even senior to

prime minister; they have forgotten completely that for what they are there. I have been challenged

by a senior official that he will not provide me any information under RTI, and does away with my

applications, just writing that the enquiry is into process.”

Respondent 2 retorted to the senior administration and status of Lokvani now as:

“The District Magistrate is not responsive to any complaints, it has been 13 times that I have done

Lokvani of the same complaint but to no use. Now the Lokvani which was once a wonderful tool

during the tenure of particular Magistrate has become a kind of show-piece, Now I can say only one

thing that Lokvani is dead now, only the death procession needs to be arranged for.”

Respondent 3 mentions:

“I called up a senior official from my tahsil and said that I have registered a Lokvani but no action

has been taken yet. He replied saying that I agree to your complaint but first come and meet me, we

will work it out, and you if you can get your work done only through Lokvani, then why are we here

for.”

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Numerous such incidents I came across which were evidently showing the power of Lokvani but

unwillingness of the administration. The masses are eager to respond to innovative concepts and

alternative mechanism of communication with the state machinery. They generally resort to any

tool provided to them, until and unless their work is completed.

The state government came up with the concept of “Tahsil Diwas”, a trademark initiative of the

political party in power. In a Tahsil Diwas, the district administration conducts public meetings to

hear and respond to their complaints on a prescribed day. Any citizen can walk up to the Tahsil to

register his complaints to the concerned officials. The process is very much similar to what the

Lokvani was doing with far much greater efficiency in the district. The physical presence of the

citizens on the particular day during the working hours discourages the citizens from participating

in the process unless the issue concerns them in the major way. Lokvani, initiated a phase of

participatory governance and improved accountability standards in the system, this increased

accountability to the public was not taken positively by the bureaucratic machinery, accustomed

to a royal mode of functioning. The public grievances if addressed at an initial level in an efficient

manner and if any complaint is responded efficiently, in the regime of right to information the

citizen can ask more questions about the issues that concern them, but the bureaucratic

procedures make the participation and interfering in the governance processes so much tedious

that, most of the citizens refrain from the participation into the process. It is required that the

administrative procedures should be made transparent and accountability standards increased,

both these tasks were done by Lokvani in a very efficient manner. The online automation of

government offices and departments is only a capacity building to serve the large purposes of e-

governance, which in a major way also needs effective public grievance redressal in the way

everyday state responds to the common masses. Lokvani enables both horizontal and vertical

monitoring of the grievances, in this way it takes the fruits of information communication

technology to the masses, thereby strengthening the overall structure of governance at the

grassroots.

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State Profile of Uttar Pradesh:

As per the population census 2001, Uttar Pradesh

with its 16.605 crore strong population, is the most

populous state in the country of 102.70 crore

population. It accounts for 16.17 per cent of the

India’s population of over one billion, fourth in

terms of density after West Bengal, Bihar and Kerala.

The population density for the state has increased

from 548 people per square kilometer in 1991 to

696 people per square kilometer in 2001. In terms of

population, Uttar Pradesh compares with the

seventh largest country in the world. Thus, the

economics of Uttar Pradesh and its development have a vital impact on the overall development of

India. An economically stronger Uttar Pradesh with its huge market could be an engine of growth

for the rest of the country.

In spite of this huge population the state suffers from poor physical and financial infrastructure.

Power consumption in the state is around 300 kWh per person, which is far less than the all India

average of 592 kWh. Among all the major states in India, Uttar Pradesh has the lowest percentage

of villages electrified and is second lowest in terms of per capita power consumption. In addition

the household access to power is just about 32 percent much below the national average of 84

percent. This constraint has a wide ranging implication for the industrialization of Uttar Pradesh.

Similarly the teledensity of (per 100 persons) of the state during 2000 was one of the lowest at

1.33 as against 2.85 at all-India level. Most of the states had teledensity in the range of 3.12 to

15.27.

There are several other concerns about education in Uttar Pradesh, which need to be addressed.

These include regional differences in the literacy rates and inadequacies in institutional

development. Uttar Pradesh has 20 middle and senior secondary schools and 59.54 primary

schools per 100,000 persons as against the national figures of 32 and 65 respectively. Data shows

that Uttar Pradesh is one of the worst developed states in middle and secondary education. Almost

80 percent of the population of Uttar Pradesh continues to live in rural areas. There has been a

shift of only one percentage point in the population from rural to urban in the state over last

- 18 -

decade (1991-2001). The pace of urbanization has been very slow in the state and the level has

been lower than most of the states. The state also finds a special mention in the IT deficiency, the

lack of networks and broadband availability etc. Uttar Pradesh’s performance with respect to the

various aspects of development lags considerably behind the all India average. Governance is the

most important issue, which needs to be examined due to its direct effects on improving the

investment policies and programmes.

Uttar Pradesh Development Report enumerates some key qualitative observations towards the

corruption in the state.

(a) Corruption is linked inversely to the salaries of the bureaucrats. The Incidence of

corruption is found to be higher among the higher level bureaucrats who deal with large

sums of money.

(b) Higher level bureaucrats have protection from being harassed and convicted by anti-

corruption authorities. Also, visibility of corruption in upper echelons is low because they

don’t deal directly with public.

(c) The incidence of corruption is also high because of a large demand of the services of these

officials as compared to the supply. Thus, the market price for these services is fairly high,

thus a preferential treatment is given to those customers who have higher purchasing

power.

In addition to these, there are several other parameters where the state falls short of even the

threshold. Most of the problems of Uttar Pradesh could be attributed to the governance failure

(especially during 1990s which also coincided with the liberalization). Thus, major chunk of

private sector led development bypassed the state. At the district level, the governance revolves

around the office of the collector thus the administration assumes a person-centered approach

rather than the institution centered approach. The vision of the collector to a large extent defines

the administration and governance in the district for the political clout is more interested in

maximizing their utility in connivance with the administration.

- 19 -

S. No. Factor Year

1. Population (crore) 2001 16.62

2. Geographical Area ( Lakh sq. Km) 2001 2.41

3. Population Density ( Per Sq. Km) 2001 689

4. % of total workers in agriculture 2001 66%

5. Village Connectivity (%) 31.3.02 51.1

6. Village Electrified ( Only by LT mains) 2002-2003 58.4%

7. Number of Districts 2008 71

8. Per capita net state domestic product 2002-2003 10,289 Rs

9. Literacy Rates 2001 56%

Source: Annual Plan GOUP 2004-05 Vol. I (Part 1) Page I and Statistical Diary 2003

The two well recognized causes of corruption in Uttar Pradesh are monopoly and discretion. The

monopoly functions of the state are often exercised through cumbersome rules, regulations and

procedures which render decision making sufficiently opaque and difficult, thus relegating an

extraordinary range of ordinary day to day functions to professional touts and the public officials

accustomed to dealing them. Governance reforms in Uttar Pradesh, therefore, aim at shedding

bureaucratic weight (reducing the size of bureaucracy by approximately 2% every year)

reviewing the rules and regulations with a view to drop unnecessary ones and simplify the

remainder. According to estimates in HDR 2003, 30 departments are administering 349 state and

central government acts. In addition there are 268 rules and 78 regulations/orders many of which

have been issued by various central acts.

Thus, the overall administrative procedure in the Uttar-Pradesh is a complex function. Also, highly

politicized bureaucracy impedes a citizen-centric mode of governance at the first place. The

bureaucrats owe allegiance to the political structures in place and with the change in the

structures the priorities of the bureaucrats also undergo change. The electronic governance

initiatives have given a mixed response in Uttar-Pradesh. The applications like Bhulekh which

concerns the online maintenance and delivery of Land Records are doing well at the user level.

Other applications like Prerna, Vahan, Koshvani, Scholarship, Karamchari, GIS for planning etc are

also doing well. The automation of offices is under the rolls and data integration and introduction

of advanced technologies like Business intelligence have brought a transition in the governance

procedures to a certain extent.

- 20 -

District Profile of Sitapur:

The City is situated on the river bank of ‘Sarayan’,

at Lucknow-Delhi National Highway No-24, 89 Km

from state capital Lucknow, and on meter gauge

railway line from Lucknow to Bareilly via

Lakhimpur and Pilibhit. Sitapur is also connected

on broad gauge train network connecting

Gorakhpur and Delhi via Gonda, Burhwal

bypassing Lucknow and Hardoi. Whole district is

divided into six tehsils - Sitapur, Biswan, Mishrikh,

Laharpur, Mahmoodabad and Sidhauli. There are 19 blocks, two parliamentary constituencies

Sitapur, Mishrikh and nine assembly constituencies (Behta, Biswan, Mahmoodabad, Sidhauli,

Laharpur, Sitapur, Hargaon, Mishrikh and Machhrehta. Total population of the district is 28.57

Lacks and the area is 5743 Sq. km. there are 2348 Census Villages and 1329 Gram Panchayats in

the district. The District enjoys a strong computer penetration and connectivity up to the nyaya

panchayat level. The administrative wings at the district headquarter campuses are connected

through optical fiber cable. All the six tehsils have approximately 6-7 computers on an average

with full time internet connectivity. All the 19 blocks have computer with internet access. The 25

police stations of the district have a fully operational connectivity to internet and 21 of them have

CIPA applications. (Common Integrated Police Applications). All the administrative offices have

trained technical manpower. The district has more than 300 cyber cafes and more than 100

Lokvani centers. National Informatics Centre, District Unit assisted by a team led by technical

director provides the required technical support to all the concerned departments as per

requirements. Overall, the district is one of the most IT ready districts of Uttar-Pradesh. One of the

most important factors which give an edge to the district is the trust and acceptability of

information systems by the public. The district is one of the districts selected for the e-district

project of the central government under National e-governance plan. (NeGP). Certainly, it won’t be

wrong to say that Sitapur is one of the most advanced districts in the state when it comes to the

penetration of ICT into the rural areas, and also in terms of the citizen awareness about the

Information technology. The three years of Lokvani intervention has made a larger impact on the

ICT infrastructure of the district. Thereby, confirming that mere facilitation of services by the state

can make a great impact in terms of penetration of technology in rural areas.

- 21 -

DISTRICT STATISTICS:

POPULATION:

1991Total Population SC Population

Male Female Total Male Female Total

Rural 13,74,119 11,39,222 25,13,341 4,82,651 4,02,784 8,85,435

Urban 1,84,786 1,58,882 3,43,668 19,497 15,483 34,980

Total 15,58,905 12,98,104 28,57,009 5,02,148 4,18,267 9,20,415

2001Total Population SC Population

Male Female Total Male Female Total

Rural 17,14,279 14,72,694 31,86,973 5,97,270 5,14,685 11,11,955

Urban 2,27,095 2,05,593 4,32,688 22,231 19,440 41,671

Total 19,41,374 16,78,287 36,19,661 6,19,501 5,34,125 11,53,626

LITERACY:

Literacy in Census -1991

Total Population Literates

Male Female Total Male Female Total

Rural 13,74,119 11,39,222 25,13,341 4,51,799 1,14,608 5,66,407

Urban 1,84,786 1,58,882 3,43,668 97,950 59,093 1,57,043

Total 15,58,905 12,98,104 28,57,009 5,49,749 1,73,701 7,23,450

Literacy in Census -2001

Total Population Literates

Male Female Total Male Female Total

Rural 17,14,279 14,72,694 31,86,973 8,04,072 3,58,969 11,63,041

Urban 2,27,095 2,05,593 4,32,688 1,39,150 1,02,252 2,41,402

Total 19,41,374 16,78,287 36,19,661 9,43,222 4,61,221 14,04,443

TEHSIL WISE POPULATION:

Tehsil NameCensus- 1991 Census- 2001

Male Female Total Male Female Total

Sitapur 2,18,547 1,82,423 4,00,970 3,83,326 3,37,378 7,20,704

Misrikh 3,62,043 2,96,664 6,58,707 4,13,549 3,50,753 7,64,302

Laharpur 2,25,760 1,89,197 4,14,957 3,22,311 2,80,469 6,02,780

Biswan 2,29,381 1,90,230 4,19,611 3,18,747 2,76,079 5,94,826

Sidhauli 1,60,957 1,35,923 2,96,880 2,50,526 2,17,314 4,67,840

Mahmoodabad 1,77,431 1,44,785 3,22,216 2,52,915 2,16,294 4,69,209

Total 13,74,119 11,39,222 25,13,341 19,41,374 16,78,287 36,19,661

- 22 -

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

The data for the study was collected during the summer project period. The research instruments

evolved over a period of time after and initial observation period in which an attempt was made to

understand the various processes operating in the process of governance from the secretariat

levels to the village levels. The field visits up to the tahsil and village levels gave insights into the

village level administration. Also, an attempt was made to identify archival and other sources of

data. It became apparent in due course of time that archival data, particularly with reference to

reports, government orders, minute proceedings was difficult to locate and in case located officials

were not willing to share it. Also, the official documents which I was able to get hold were so much

comprehensive and detailed but in the slightest manner did not reflect the dynamics of what was

on the play on ground. Thus long unstructured interviews and discussions was the only source of

insight into the processes that are operational in reality. I also tried to participate in certain

meetings of the district officials to gain an insight of how the things functioned, as the otherwise

available reports were very tersely worded, indicating the agenda and result only, rather than the

intermediate dynamics. Internal records of the government are also a treasure for the officials

which still are difficult to get in. For example, I needed financial details of a major pilot project of

integrated citizen services in Lucknow, the state coordinator after nearly 20 calls and four visits

declared that he was not authorized to give the information, thus I had to decide for doing without

the data. It is difficult to locate the manuals which govern the processes; in large number of cases

they do not exist at all. Every information sharing required a formal permission of the study,

which when I got from the institute was asked by many to be approved by the government which I

was not able to. Information technology departments is in charge of the e-governance projects

which on regular basis are circulated among the departments, but the officials in other

departments very rarely open to these circulars. The engineering departments and technology

related departments are something out of place when it comes to district administration. The

district administration revolves around the departments related to law and order, board of

revenues, and development officers, primary education etc. Thus not a surprise that relationships

between the these functionaries at district level say and District administration is never written

about in contrast to a plethora of literature on relationships between district magistrates and

police. Thus it was most fruitful approach to obtain the various perceptions of various members

in these organizations. This was important for perceptions are also embedded in the attitudes.

- 23 -

THE LOKVANI:

Lokvani is a Hindi word which means “The Voice of

people”. It’s is a single window Governance system

for providing transparent, accountable and

responsive government administration for

grievance handling, land record maintenance and

job opportunity creation, thus giving security and

opportunity for accelerated development. Lokvani

is a public- private partnership project started in

the district of Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh, India. After

the success in Sitapur the project was replicated in all the 70 districts of Uttar-Pradesh. It is a

kiosk based self-sustainable e-governance solution for providing transparent, accountable and

responsive administration for grievance handling, land record management and an eclectic

mixture of essential Services. The model has been showcased as one of the most successful,

popular and influential e-governance solutions. Lokvani is a public private partnership program,

which gives citizens an opportunity to interact with the government without coming to any

government office. It is an example of a highly cost-efficient, economically self-reliant and user

financed community network. This solution is targeted at 3.6 million citizens residing within the

district, located in the province of Uttar Pradesh. The system is grounded in the rule of law,

encompassing the rights of people underpinned by accountable and efficient public administration

for multiphase development of rural people. The primary objective of the IT solution is to bridge

the digital Divide and “connect” the common man to the strategy maker’s in a seamless fashion.

The Lokvani project was initiated on lines of a citizen friendly approach to the electronic

governance systems. The success of the programme over the period of three years and its

subsequent downfall over the successive period gives us unique inside into the issues that lead to

success and failures of the project. First of all, I will discuss the business model of Lokvani and its

approach towards enabling efficient administration, the role of various stakeholders, and various

related features, and subsequently move on to the fluctuations and decline of the project to

understand the issues involved in the same. The attempt is not at all aimed at any personal

references to the people who have led to the success or failures but as to the administrative

system under study as a whole rather than any person failure or success.

- 24 -

GENESIS:

Lokvani was a response of the committed district

administration towards providing a unique

approach to the age old trauma of bureaucratic

hassles which impact the life of the ordinary citizen

in a large way. With the aim to reach out to the

people and give them a platform to voice their

concerns and complaints the district administration

of Sitapur, initiated the innovative system of

grievance redress through Information and

Communication Technology. It was visualized as a

two way exchange of information of government programs and documents to the people and of

people’s complaints and feedback to the Government. A study was commissioned of similar

initiatives in the Districts of Jhalawar (Rajasthan) and Dhar (Madhya Pradesh). The study revealed

the strengths and weaknesses of these efforts. Lokvani was accordingly designed to improve upon

them and came up with an online resolution and redressal of all the public grievances, a first of its

kind in India. A society by the name Lokvani was registered under Act 21, society Registration Act

1860 in Uttar Pradesh to implement the project autonomously and so as to reduce the

bureaucratic hassles. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) provided the necessary technical

know-how of the project. The format of the program was designed to suit the local demographic

profile. 88% of Sitapur population resides in the villages and only 38% of the people are literate.

This called for a simple, user friendly program which was within easy reach of the people both

geographically as well as socially. National Informatics Centre developed a transparent, efficient

and corruption-resistant program. It was decided that instead of opening new kiosks, existing

cyber cafes, computer training institutes should be granted licenses to become Lokvani Centres.

This decision was taken to ensure the financial viability and the long-term sustainability of the

kiosks. It brought about a paradigm shift in the fundamentals of governance and government-

public relations in Sitapur. It also created job opportunities for the educated unemployed youth of

Sitapur. Today there are about 110 geographically uniformly distributed kiosk centres at block

and tehsils level at Sitapur, which have filed more than one lakh nineteen thousand public

grievances till date.

- 25 -

THE PROCESS:

The complaint once registered into the Lokvani website

is immediately transmitted to the collector’s office where

it is marked to specific officers with fixed time limits for

disposal of the complaint. This is updated on the website

and the complainant can see this on computer for follow

up. The concerned officer’s collect the complaints related

to them or their offices daily from either the district

headquarters or from any Lokvani Kendra. If they have computers in their offices, they can access

the complaints directly. Thus within 24 hours of registration, the complaint reaches the level at

which it has to be addressed. The office or officer concerned, reports back to the collector within

the fixed time about the action taken on the matter. If for any unavoidable reason, the disposal is

not completed within the time frame, the officer may ask for additional time, which may be

granted by the Collector. This is immediately entered into the program for information of the

complainant. After the complaint has been redressed, entry is again made in the program. All

complaints are sorted and arranged in terms of offices, officers, types of complaint, date of

registration etc. This helps in effective monitoring and accountability. The DM can use these

monitoring tools to pinpoint responsibility for delays and take action accordingly against erring

officials. The facility is frequently used by district Magistrate in weekly meeting of Lokvani. The

software can generate any report needed by executive officer at any given time. No scope of hiding

facts. A complete list of all the complaints received at Lokvani Sitapur is also readily accessible.

These reports give an idea about the total pending complaints as well. Further more these reports

can be viewed by any citizen at Lokvani. The complainant may know exactly who is holding back

his or her matter. This enables public to get a reliable feedback about the process and in turn

enables the citizens to follow-up their case in case they need a more rapid solution. Similar lists of

all complaints on which action had been taken and report is generated by the officers are

accessible to their superior officers as well. The Lokvani Centre enters the complaint on behalf of

the complainant. The user need not be literate or computer expert to lodge his or her grievance. A

copy of the complaint is given to the complainant and the database keeps tracks of all the

complaints filed by a particular Lokvani Centre.

- 26 -

THE SERVICES UNDER LOKVANI:

The Lokvani platform provided a number of services. The services were constantly upgraded as

per the requirements and innovations. Broadly in the initial phases the services being offered

through the Lokvani Centres fall under the following categories:

(1) Details pertaining to land records through the Bhulekh portal.

(2) Different development schemes, scholarship details, pension details etc.

(3) Status of complaints, action taken reports and related services.

(4) The online lodging of complaints and dissemination of status of complaint.

(5) Downloading of government prescribed forms etc.

(6) Driving Licence application.

(7) Availability of land records (Khataunis) on internet.

(8) Online registration, disposal and monitoring of public grievances.

(9) Information of various governments schemes/prescribed Government forms.

(10) List of different development works/Schemes/Expenditure/Beneficiaries etc.

(11) GPF Account details of basic education teachers.

(12) Details of work done under MPLAD / MLALAD.

(13) Allotment of funds to Gram Sabha’s under different development schemes.

(14) Allotment of food grains to kotedars (fair price shops).

(15) Other useful information of public interest.

(16) Online tender submission/monitoring.

(17) Birth/Death/Caste/Income/Domicile Certificates.

(18) Online Results of exams/competitions/Appointment etc.

(19) Details of financial expenditure on Developmental work.

(20) Student scholarships details under various categories.

(21) Pension related information for widow, old age, physically handicapped, minority etc.

(22) District voters list.

(23) Directory of District Officials

(24) Online applications for loans under various schemes run by Government.

(25) Market Rates of vegetables and other items, collected on daily basis from nearby Market.

(26) Notice Board featuring important Notification and events by the District Administration.

(27) Information about Local Employment Opportunities in the district.

- 27 -

STAKEHOLDERS IN LOKVANI:

National Informatics Centre:

National Informatics Centre has its giant network all over the country. It has its District office in

every District head quarter headed by District Informatics Officer. NIC has centralized data server

in Delhi. Every district unit is connected to Delhi through SCPC PAMA VSAT. Every District has

User ID and Password for accessing the space allocated in server to them. Software Development

cost of this project was zero as NIC is already working in every district on government

expenditure. There are only two employees from NIC in district, namely District Informatics

Officer and Scientific Officer. Eight people are appointed on daily wages basis and have given ID

and password for handling work of Lokvani. These workers do the feeding of the action taken

report, target date and DM remarks on Lokvani System for these officers. All the district offices

work under the state unit headed by State Informatics Officer (SIO). Similarly state units are

headed by central unit in Delhi. District can ask for help to state office or country head office for

technical assistance. Help can be in area of new technology or in application development.

District Administration:

District magistrate is the administrative and functional head of the Lokvani system. The

administration and Implementation of any e-governance system is more a strategic issue then

technical. Resistance from administrative officers is extremely high due to change in the

established working system. Lokvani System has been rolled out on a top-down basis and hence it

is a challenge to get sustainable acceptance from officers. However, Lokvani has significantly

increased accountability of officers and transparency in district administration. The success of the

system in Sitapur is widely believed to be due to the focused approach of the District Magistrate.

The then District Magistrate in Sitapur implemented various processes to ensure the success of

the system. One of the key processes was to have a meeting with the relevant officers every

Tuesday, to check the total number of complaints arrived and disposed by each officer. The

process does away with the need to send formal notices to the officers and this eliminates the alibi

of not receiving the notices on time. Specifically, those officers who have their name in the

defaulter list are invited to the meeting. Each officer has assigned unique ID and password for

accessing the Lokvani system.

- 28 -

The Lokvani Society:

Lokvani society’s role is pivotal in the entire process & operation. The Lokvani society was

registered under Act 21, Society Registration Act 1860 in Uttar Pradesh. This step was taken to

implement the project autonomously and to reduce the bureaucratic hassles. All the financial

work of Lokvani is governed through this society. Monetary financial power of president is limited

to INR 2, 00,000 and of secretary is limited to 50,000 only. Lokvani society meets its recurring

costs from the amount received from registration of kiosks, lifetime and short term Lokvani

membership fee and MPLAD / MLALAD funds Etc. Initial set up cost for Lokvani was also very

negligible as all the hardware software support was provided by NIC free of cost. The Lokvani

society raised a huge amount by the selling of Lokvani software to the seventy districts of Uttar

Pradesh at a cost of 75, 000 each. That amount has been used by the extension of the Lokvani

kiosks up to the gram panchayat level discussed later.

The management committee of this society have following key members:

(1) District Magistrate: President

(2) Chief Development Officer: Secretary

(3) ADM: Vice President

(4) Senior Treasury Officer: Financial President

(5) City Magistrate: Member

(6) SDM, Sitapur: Member

(7) Planning Director: Member

(8) District Manager Telecommunication: Member

(9) District Informatics Officer: Member

Role and Responsibilities of the society:

(1) Management and Operations of the Lokvani hub.

(2) Up-gradation of infrastructure, hardware.

(3) Software and networking.

(4) Registration of private players for Lokvani Centres.

(5) Collection of the registration charges from the Centre operators.

(6) Revenue sharing model for service charges with the private parties.

- 29 -

It has also been observed that people do not mind paying for services, as long as they are assured

of action on their grievances and complaints and they get required information at their doorsteps,

which also saves them a lot of time and money wasted in visiting the various government offices

time and again for even a small work. Thus the society was also made responsible for the

conceptualising and then monitoring the financial transactions in the project. Now the Lokvani

societies formed in every district of Uttar-Pradesh is the key agency implementing various e-

governance projects. The Lokvani society is an organisational innovation which performs within

the confines of state machinery and in the meantime is also independent of the same. It also has a

group of consultants like District Information Officer from NIC. Thus, giving it a more holistic

perspective, but a large part of the Lokvani societies is dominated by the district administration

officials, the membership of Lokvani society should be expanded to include some more members

chosen by a consensus, which could extend the participation of the people. Probably

representatives from media, academics and Judiciary can increase the accountability of the

Lokvani society to a large extent.

KIOSK OPERATORS:

This model of Lokvani worked out quite efficiently up to the Tehsil, Block and Town level as there

was very negligible set up cost involved. To further spread the growth of Lokvani network to the

village level, some initial investment in hardware was involved which Government shared.

Recurring expenditures were met from the income generated from various services provided to

people from the Kiosk. Key issue is to add sufficient Information/Services to Lokvani in order to

make the kiosk viable. Additionally kiosks can also generate some revenue by providing other

private services through their kiosks like computer education, DTP work, digital photography,

cyber cafe etc. The kiosk operators were authorized to register the complaints and were

responsible for the feeding of the compliant into the Lokvani server. The local term which is in

vogue now is “to do a Lokvani”. The complaint is now referred with the name of Lokvani rather

than application. The Lokvani kiosk owners are also responsible for tracking the status of Lokvani

for and subsequently inform the citizen about its status. He is also permitted to provide various

other services through his shop to make the venture profitable. The Lokvani licences are issued

once a year, and after the completion of one year they have to renew the license on payment of a

fee of rupees one thousand to the Lokvani Society. Thus, the Lokvani kiosk owners act as a

important link at the delivery point of the Lokvani complaint.

- 30 -

INFRASTRUCTURE AND COSTS:

First of all, computer kiosks are either set up in every panchayat or the existing cyber cafes

computer training centres are co-opted into the system. These are designated as ‘Lokvani

Kendras’ and are equipped with computers, Printers, UPS and generators if required. These

centres are registered with the District Administration for a fee. From these Kendra’s any citizen

can file a complaint on payment of a nominal Charge of Rs 10 for every complaint. The Kendra

assists the people in accessing the Lokvani site and typing his complaint. Later on, it also helps the

complainant in tracking his complaint and in following it up. A fee of Rs 5 is charged for follow ups.

The Kendra is trained in the use of Lokvani software by NIC. While the Lokvani can be accessed

from anywhere, it is necessary to log on from a kiosk to register a complaint. There are two kinds

of costs involved in the project the capital cost and recurring expenditure. The Government just

needs to make the capital investment, while the recurring expenditure will be met by the

registration and service charges collected. Since the backbone of the project is Internet and the

density of Lokvani Centres plays an important role. The private participation not only reduced the

burden on the State Government, but also facilitated faster expansion of the project. The

management, operations, expansion & technical up-gradation of the project & Lokvani Hub will be

done by the Lokvani society, which will collect funds through registration and revenue sharing for

the services being provided through Lokvani Centre. Lokvani is hosted on internet using SQL

Server as back end database and ASP is used for writing application. Any client connected to

Internet can access Lokvani using browser if he has proper authorization. Lokvani is a service

delivery project and utilizes the service oriented architecture like single windows access to

multiple services, use of local language, quality of service, improvement in speed of delivery, the

ease of use etc. The communication software used in the project has been developed by NIC in

Hindi. Lokvani project requirement can be categorized into three parts:

(1) Infrastructure for stetting up Lokvani hub and Information kiosk, which will be provided

by the District Administration.

(2) Local Area Networking (LAN) connecting the Lokvani HUB, NIC District Centre and the

Sections of the collectorate that are offering Services through Lokvani Project.

(3) Computer Hardware & Software, that is necessary for the Lokvani Hub and different

sections of the collectorate.

- 31 -

Hardware & software components:

Computer hardware, software & LAN require specific components which are mentioned below:

(a) Server (Intel Pentium Xeon based)

(b) Information Kiosk

(c) Clients(Intel Pentium IV Based)

(d) Printers Laser.

(e) Printers DMP

(f) UPS for Server & Networking

(g) Components (Online)

(h) UPS for Clients

(i) Software (System Software & Databases)

(j) Networking (Active & Passive Components for LAN)

(k) Touch Screen Kiosks

(l) 11 IVRS Card / Software

Project hardware set-up Cost for Lokvani Centre:

(a) Computer: 5 * 40,000 = 2, 00,000(b) Printer: 2 * 25,000 = 50,000(c) Hardware Online UPS: 1 * 1, 00,000= 1, 00,000(d) Lokvani Software: 75, 000(e) Other software applications: 25,000(f) Networking Hub and LAN Cabling: 20,000(g) Civil Work: 30,000(h) Electrical work: 20,000(i) Air Conditioner: 30,000

Other Costs:

(1) Operators Salary: 5 * 2,000 = 10,000(2) Administrator Salary: 1 * 8,000 = 8,000(3) Peon salary: 2 * 1,000 = 2,000(4) Stationery for printing: 1,500(5) Printer toner refilling: 5,000(6) Other stationery: 2,000

Recurring monthly income:

(a) Grievances 100*240=24,000(b) Arms 300 * 40=12,000

(c) Land Records 300 * 40=12,000

(d) Tenders 200 * 40=8,000

(e) Certificates 120 * 40=4,800

(f) Miscellaneous 200 * 40=8,000

- 32 -

Estimated Income of Lokvani centre:

(a) Government grants: 15, 00, 000

(b) MP/MLA / Contingencies: 10, 00, 000

(c) Kiosk Agreements: (100X1000): 100,000

Cost for setting up new kiosk at Village Panchayat level with one time investment:

(1) Computer- Rs 30, 000(2) Printer - Rs 10, 000(3) UPS Rs- 5, 000(4) Generator - Rs. 25, 000(5) Solar power support cost - variable(6) VSAT Cost - variable

Recurring (per month) on a Kiosk

(1) Rent off shop : 500(2) Electricity/water/maintenance expenditure: 1000(3) Internet expenses: 500(4) Stationary & other consumable items: 500

Monthly Estimated Income of Kiosks from Lokvani Services:

(1) Grievance redressal: 300*10 = 3000(2) Arms Licences: 300*5 = 1, 500(3) Land Records: 150*10 = 1, 500(4) Tenders: 50* 20 = 1, 000(5) Certificates: 60*10 = 600(6) Miscellaneous: 2, 000

Total 9, 600

Income from Other Service

(a) Digital photography: 1,000(b) Net Surfing: 1,000(c) Computer typing: 1,000

Total 3,000

Monthly Net Income of Kiosks:

= 9600 +3000= 12, 600 INR

Monthly Saving of Kiosks

Saving = Net income-Recurring Expenditure

= 12, 600-2500= 10, 100 INR

- 33 -

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

The project evolved over time and gradually more services and activities were added from time-

to-time. The project was thus implemented in a phased manner over a period of three years, to

encompass the maximum features and services that can be offered to the people for smooth

functioning of the project the roles and responsibilities of the agencies involved and the structure

of committees for monitoring the project have been defined below:

National Informatics Centre:

(a) Application Software development for Lokvani Website, Information Kiosk.

(b) Different sections of the collectorate offering services through the Lokvani Centre.

(c) Design & Establishment LAN within tithe collectorate

(d) Implementation support for tithe project at the District.

(e) Finalization of hardware and software specifications

District Administration

(1) Provision of infrastructure for stetting up of Lokvani Hubs

(2) Procurement of hardware, system software.

(3) Hiring of operational manpower for the Project.

(4) Coordination between different

(5) Departments for provision of services at the Collectorate.

Lokvani Society

(1) Management & Operations of the Lokvani HUB.

(2) Gradation of infrastructure, hardware, software & networking, if required

(3) Registration of Private Parties for Lokvani Centres.

(4) Communication between various stake-holders.

(5) Maintenance of various official documents.

(6) Collection of revenues and maintenance of accounts.

(7) Coordinate with the teams of other districts to help in the implementation.

(8) To act as a district level consultant to various e-governance projects.

(9) To organise various other meets, awards ceremonies, dignitary visits etc.

- 34 -

SCREENSHOTS:

(1) The Lokvani Homepage:

The Lokvani homepage could be accessed through the link www.sitapur.nic.in/Lokvani for the

Sitapur district. This homepage is hosted on the NIC website of the districts and an icon is

provided on the homepage of the district website to access the Lokvani. The security verification is

required to log onto the website. The kiosk owners and the officers are provided with a user id

and password to log on the website. For the demonstration purposes we can use “Guest” as User

ID and Password. The defaulters list and other various details of ongoing projects of Lokvani

Society are provided on the Homepage. The Login to the website takes us the the welcome menu

as shown in the next screenshot.

- 35 -

(2) Welcome Menu:

Any citizen who files the complaint through the kiosk centres by using Kiosk ID and Password

(generally both ID & Password remain the same for the sake of simplicity of the Operations) after

Logging in, the Complainant gets the menu, whose screenshot is given above. This menu contains

the following hyperlinks, Lokvani Grievance services

(1) The complaint menu.

(2) Tender services

(3) Arms License Services

(4) Land records

(5) Employment services

(6) Information about Schemes/forms

(7) List of different works

(8) Single window service centre.

(9) Return to main menu.

- 36 -

The Grievance Menu:

It has another set of details. The menu is given as a virtual screenshot. Here each row represents a

different hyperlinked section.

It has the following sections:

(a) Filing complaint

(b) Status of the complaint

(c) Officer Wise summary of all complaints

(d) Summary of all complaint

(e) Centre wise send complaints

(f) Date wise Received complaints

(g) Date wise marked complaints

(h) Date wise modified complaints

(i) Date wise disposed complaint

(j) Date wise received disposed reports

(k) List of pending complaints.

(l) Complaints which have been filed more than once.

- 37 -

Grievance Registration:

After logging in the complainant may file his or her complaint either with the help of the Kiosk’s

assistant. The grievance registration format is very simple and clear. The complainant may take a

final print out of the report filed for safe keeping, otherwise it’s not required because this process

is unstoppable, unchangeable and unalterable at any level. The data once entered can’t be

manipulated by any one. The complainant now proceeds to click on ‘register complaint’ for

registering his Complaint. Briefly the whole process takes the Following course: Individual’s file

grievance through kiosk centres and kiosk owner reregisters the complaint online and provides

tithe complainant with a unique complaint number. The complaint gets stored at the NIC

headquarters’ SQL server at Delhi (Unmarked complaint). The Personal Assistant of the District

Manager (DM) sorts the complaints according to the officers and their departments. The DM

forwards the complaints with annotations such as the required action and its dead line (Marked

complaint). This information is then submitted online and hard copies are marked off to the

concerned officials and his department (Pending complaint). The officer solves the complaint,

submits a report to the DM and then finally files a report on the action taken using his unique ID

and password (Disposed complaint). The petitioner can view the status of the complaint and the

official action using the complaint number.

- 38 -

The monitoring reports:

- 39 -

ADVANTAGES:

Time saver procedures:

The main advantage of the program lies in the fact that it completely does away with the need of

villagers or the citizens to run from Pillar to post to either access information or to lodge a simple

complaint. As more than 80% of the population lies in the villages and most of them are very poor,

it is an extremely convenient method of problem solving for them. The Lokvani kiosks are spread

across all the tehsils and blocks of the district. It is very convenient and comfortable for the

common man to lodge his complaint and get other services from his own local area. His

transaction costs and time have been reduced considerably. There is absolutely no need to kill

time in to and fro communication to contact the district administration.

Time bound Redressal:

If a person lodges a complaint through this system, he can be assured of getting response on a

fixed time since the system works on a continuos monitoring basis thus the system is efficient and

reliable if administrative trade offs are not accounted for. The fact that today nearly 200

complaints are reaching the Collector’s office not only shows the increasing popularity of the

program but also bears testimony to the fact that as many people have been saved from

unnecessary trouble of travelling to the district headquarters, spending their hard earned incomes

and wasting their productive time for solution of their simple grievances. Since every one is free to

tell his Opinion and circulating the information around him, he is basically helping the

administration to eradicate the social evils also.

Enhancements:

Integrated Voice Response System and Short Message Service have been added to Lokvani.

Officers and Complainant will be able to check Complaint status on mobile phone. System has

different options for officer and complainant. Citizens will be able to check status of Complaint,

name of officer to whom the complaint is assigned, instruction by District Magistrate, deadline

date given to the officer for solving the complaint on phone. Similarly officers will be able to check

number of complaints pending to him. Officer can drill down any complaint for details. On the

other hand, the district offices have become decongested though the quality and pace of redress all

of grievances have improved. Monitoring has become more focused and effective, accountability

- 40 -

better defined. Paper work has been reduced leading to better office upkeep. It provides the top

management group in district administration an insight into the delivery system of all

departments related to public service and analyse the types of problems that people generally

face. Lokvani has been an excellent experiment in reengineering of governance and service

delivery at the district level. Within Government it has reduced discretion and delays and hence

has contributed to a significant reduction in corruption and subjectivity. The entire government

system has been thrown open to public viewing and hence introduced an unprecedented

transparency in Governance.

Direct connectivity with masses:

Generally officers remain isolated with General people. After getting connectivity through Lokvani

they got the direct connection with the masses. They can easily understand the problems of the

common people and ground realities. It has lead to a more systematic approach in solving the

problems of people and a direct connection with the masses. The senior officers having service

length of 20 years plus hesitated initially to learn how to operate a computer, but gradually they

got convinced by the advantages of working on computer. They developed interest and at present

all officers are computer knowing officers and they are multiplying the number of Computer

aware people. The use of computer in Government departments is increasing day by day and

officers themselves are promoting the use. They can easily understand the problems of common

people and ground realities.

Newer opportunities:

Lokvani has registered private kiosk centres and given them an opportunity for self employment

and with a very little investment, the kiosk owners are getting handsome returns. The Kiosk

owners can generate more income by stetting up other facilities like photocopier, PCO, Fax, Digital

Photography etc along with ‘Lokvani’ services. Various modes of income is available through

‘Lokvani’ like complaint lodging, printing, viewing the various employment schemes, job

vacancies, tender publishing and forms etc. The NIC has gained by its authorship of this unique

program and its sustained association with it through trainings, etc. Lokvani has exhibited that

with a minimal cost the entire system of governance can be brought within the easy reach of the

people. It has created computer awareness and scientific temper in the rural populace as well as

government machinery, which has experienced an innovative exposure to modern technology.

- 41 -

CHALLENGES FACED:

Conceiving a project like Lokvani is not easy, but the implementing was even more difficult due to

the resistance offered by the old public grievance redresses system. With the passage of time it

was realized that the implementation of Lokvani governance System is more of a strategic issue

then technical. During the various phases latter the administration encountered the following

challenges:

(1) Resistance from administrative officers is extremely high due to change in working System.

Lokvani system has been rolled out on a top-down basis and hence it is a challenge to get

sustainable acceptance from officers. However, Lokvani has significantly increased

accountability of officers and transparency in district administration.

(2) The success of the system in Sitapur was widely believed to be due to the focused approach

of the District Magistrate. Officers think that their all effort for learning the system will of

no use when DM will get transferred. The next DM will have different priority therefore he

will not give required weightage to Lokvani and e-Governance system.

(3) Every officer doesn’t have computer systems as well as willingness to use them. System is

not fully automated. Still some paper work is mandatory at all levels; this was the major

challenge to the implementing machinery.

(a) Hierarchal and time taking process of getting birth, death, domicile, caste, and Income

certificates. Monitoring of officers action by higher authority was relatively hard and no

proof or documentation of minor laxities was available.

(4) Government offices were only source of information about various government welfare

schemes. Citizens were bound to come to district headquarters/ tehsils for government

related work and for getting solution to their grievances.

(5) Unnecessary secrecy in land record information had potential to generate Land scams.

Computerisation of land records under Bhulekh has helped a lot.

(6) Computer illiteracy was not good at officer and public level. Lokvani Enhancing computer

illiteracy programme was a vital success. District Administration had only 10 computer

systems including Linux based treasury system with Oracle 9i database. Collectorate was

not enabled with Computer Networking.

- 42 -

RESULTS ACHIEVED:

Lokvani project devised goals and targets as it evolved and were continuously revised. However,

some of the prime objectives of the project were achieved:

Service Delivery:

More than 1, 19,000 Public Grievance Complaints have been lodged since the inception of the

project through the Lokvani Centres spread across the district. The common man need not travel

to the government offices to lodge these complaints or to know about action taken on his

complaint. Now they can go to the nearest Lokvani Centre and file their complaints through the

Internet. The status of these Complaints is also available on the website

Reducing Response Time and Increasing Accountability:

The District Magistrate himself monitors all the complaints lodged through the web. He fixes strict

timelines for redressal of the complaint before being marked to the concerned authority. The

status of all complaints is available on the NET, which not only increases transparency but also

fixes the accountability.

Growth of Internet Service Providers:

One of the major achievements of the project is that the reach of Internet has been extended to the

remotest areas. The project which started with a couple of Lokvani centres has now grown to

more than 100 centres up to the nyaya panchayat level and requests for authorization cyber cafes

as Lokvani Centres are pouring-in. This has lead to increase in the private sector internet service

providers like Reliance and Tata Indicom into the remotest areas of the district.

Extension of benefits of ICT to farmers, Labourers & unemployed youth:

With the growth of ISPs the unemployed youth are getting benefitted, while the land records

computerization and its linkage with the Lokvani Project is a welcome boon to the farmers who

will have the option of viewing their Land Records Information at the Lokvani Centres. The

process is also underway to provide an authentic printed copy of land records to the farmers

through courier and post right at the doorstep. They will only need to go to the nearest Lokvani

Centres to make a Request.

- 43 -

Streamlining the functioning of Collectorate:

The hub of the Lokvani Project is National Informatics Centre (NIC) office located at the

collectorate. Other services like Arms Licensing, Issuance of Certificates, and Pension Details etc.

are added on the Lokvani, the backend computerization, streamlining of Processes and workflow

automation is being carried out. It has Created awareness in areas of e-administration, e-

education, e-health etc among district administration. It Reduced duplication of efforts, thereby

improving the efficiency and productivity of manpower at the collectorate. Skills development of

collectorate Employees

Information dissemination:

Information pertaining to different Government Schemes, government prescribed forms,

development works carried out in districts, lists of old age pensioners, lists of scholarship

beneficiaries, funds Allotted in various government schemes, Allotment of food grains to kotedars,

Allotments of funds to Gram Panchayats etc. are a part of the information provided to the people

through Lokvani Centres.

Reducing Cost:

The user need not travel from remote areas to the District Collectorate to lodge complaints and

follow-up. They can now save both time and money and go to the nearest Lokvani Centre to lodge

their complaint or access information they desire. The government also saves valuable time in

monitoring the Complaint, which can now be used in more productive work. As more than 80%

Population live in the villages and most of them are very poor. These poor villagers can get the

solution of their problems as well as all the necessary information by spending maximum Rs. 25 to

30 in place of traditional expenditure ranging between Rs.100 to 200.

Reducing Corruption:

The main concept of the Lokvani Project is to makes Government more transparent and

accountable to citizens. Since the complaints are now traceable, responsibilities fixed, status of

action taken on the website, it all helps in reducing the corruption to a large extent. Also, the

accountability is increased by the online proof of the laxity of the official concerned since he

cannot hide anything and has to bear the responsibility of whatever action he has taken.

- 44 -

Empowering ordinary citizen:

Previously, citizens were never officially informed about the result or status of their application.

They had to run from pillar to post to know that. Now the information is available at the doorstep

to the citizen. Extending the benefits of ICT to the common man is fulfilled but the journey does

not end here. It is the beginning as we strive to bring more services under the umbrella of Lokvani.

The project has seen a large number of women complainants who were reluctant earlier to travel

to the district headquarters. The women are also coming forward as kiosk owners and are

asserting their status in the society.

Promoting Public-Private Partnership:

The model is a classic example of grassroots level public-private partnership. The kiosk owners

and the district administration work in a unique synergy with each other. Thus the black box of

administration gets a bit open as the kiosk owners tend to intervene in the processes also. Thus,

the monopoly structure of administration is diluted a bit an this takes administration more near to

people.

Awards and Appreciations

The 1, 19,000 complaints in the Lokvani Server and their efficient disposal are the biggest

achievements which Lokvani can boast of. The public trust which still is there in the process of

Lokvani is another achievement of the project. The core team of Lokvani has felicitated across on

various occasions for the unique concept of Lokvani and contribution towards improvement of

governance. The public feedback and the media coverage generated by the project have been

massive. Eminent newspapers and Magazines have featured Lokvani project. Some of the awards

won by Lokvani included:

(1) Prime Minister Award for Public Administration in 2008.

(2) Finalist of the ‘Stockholm Challenge Award’ for World’s best ICT projects for social and

Economical development.

(3) ‘Manthan-AIF Award 2006’ For India’s best e-content practices.

(4) ‘Golden Icon Award’ (Cochin, 2006).

(5) Dataquest E-gov Champion Award.

(6) Microsoft award.

- 45 -

REPLICATION:

Lokvani project demonstrated that an e- Governance project could be successfully implemented in

adverse conditions such as low literacy rate, poor network and power conditions, negative

mindset towards change etc. After its success in Sitapur District, the government of Uttar Pradesh

decided to roll out the project in entire state, with specific guidelines, procedures and resources.

Some of the identified steps were:

(1) Creation of Lokvani Society & Lokvani Cell in NIC.

(2) Identification, training & agreement with Kiosks.

(3) Software installation and data entry of district specific data

(4) Publicity and awareness generation about Lokvani.

But sadly, the replication of the project failed miserably in the state, due to a resistance among the

bureaucracy to the project. There districts which performed well in replication were again due to

the personal dynamism of the officers rather then the institutionalised structure, due to a lack of

continuos monitoring by some central body. The department of IT was the nodal agency for

implementing the project, which is something out of place when it comes to everyday bureaucracy

in Uttar-Pradesh. The issues pertaining to the competition within bureaucracy led to the failure of

the replication. The senior bureaucrats who wanted to assert themselves went on to alter the

structure of Lokvani to preserve their individuality. For example the project was started by the

district administration of Hardoi by the name of ‘Janvani’, Aligarh named it as “Kaumi Awaz” and

numerous such incidents happened. The field level bureaucrats were not comfortable with the

idea of implementing the innovation in a nearby district thus giving away the credit to those who

designed the program rather than themselves. Also the issue of corruption was the biggest factor,

since the project increased the accountability of the very same people who were to implement it, it

lost its charm rather officials became inimical to the same, the fate similar to that of Right to

Information in India. Political machinery in Uttar-Pradesh is too busy with their electoral issues

rather than to pay heed to such projects. Thus, the replication failure of the project brought out

hidden issues in the way our administrative systems synergise with each other at the district level,

which needs to be addressed in a holistic perspective, by the senior administrative machinery. The

need is to institutionalise the processes and harmonise the relationships in the day to day

operations of the administrative machinery.

District wise Details of Complaints

(12/05/2008)

---DISTRICT

Total Pending

Disposed

1 AGRA 4 2 2

2 ALIGARH 6367 560 5807

3 ALLAHABAD 582 251 331

4 AMBEDKERNAGAR 0 0 0

5 AURAIYA 0 0 0

6 AZAMGARH 1 1 0

7 BADAUN 61 61 0

8 BAGPAT 92 62 30

9 BALLIA 29 21 8

10 BALRAMPUR 2096 810 1286

11 BANDA 383 263 120

12 BARABANKI 0 0 0

13 BAREILLY 2044 380 1664

14 BASTI 245 81 164

15 BEHRAICH 214 145 69

16 BIJNOR 502 214 288

17 BULANDSHAHAR 185 98 87

18 CHANDAULI 0 0 0

19 CHITRAKOOT 1 1 0

20 DEORIA 1026 634 392

21 ETAH 0 0 0

22 ETAWAH 0 0 0

23 FAIZABAD 20700 683 20017

24 FARRUKHABAD 183 50 133

25 FATEHPUR 6 6 0

26 FIROZABAD 10 4 6

27 GBNAGAR 2 1 1

28 GHAZIABAD 115 14 101

29 GHAZIPUR 752 501 251

30 GONDA 13966 4624 9342

31 GORAKHPUR 583 207 376

32 HAMIRPUR 147 52 95

33 HARDOI 82857 2134 80723

34 HATHRAS 16 16 0

35 JALAUN 818 227 591

36 JAUNPUR 33124 3801 29323

37 JHANSI 1412 1343 69

38 JPNAGAR 1 1 0

39 KANNAUJ 791 47 744

40 KANPURDEHAT 36 19 17

41 KANPURNAGAR 2 2 0

42 KAUSHAMBHI 0 0 0

43 KHERI 4235 818 3417

44 KUSHINAGAR 239 225 14

45 LALITPUR 687 115 572

46 LUCKNOW 1135 798 337

47 MAHARAJGANJ 1848 821 1027

48 MAHOBA 642 99 543

49 MAINPURI 24 23 1

50 MATHURA 6 2 4

51 MAU 13 12 1

52 MEERUT 4807 110 4697

53 MIRZAPUR 8 8 0

54 MORADABAD 5947 504 5443

55 MUZAFFARNAGAR 1014 256 758

56 PILIBHIT 1 1 0

57 PRATAPGARH 0 0 0

58 RAEBARELI 5465 1123 4342

59 RAMPUR 0 0 0

60 SAHARANPUR 30 6 24

61 SHAHJAHANPUR 1368 46 1322

62 SHRAVASTI 385 85 300

63 SIDHARTHNAGAR 262 181 81

64 SITAPUR 1,15,049 3,405 111,644

65 SKNAGAR 10 10 0

66 SONBHADRA 14 14 0

67 SRDNAGAR 0 0 0

68 SULTANPUR 0 0 0

69 UNNAO 3976 1252 2724

70 VARANASI 9 9 0

Total 316527 288650 289288

CONCLUSION:

Institutions, which are the mechanisms of actualizing both democracy and development, need

drastic reforms at all the levels of the governance. Good Governance cannot be achieved in

isolation, all the players have to unanimously strive towards a common goal in order to initiate

change. There is no dearth of serious concerns, debates and proposals about various reforms, from

parliament to judiciary, the executive and local governance, but implementation machinery of

ours performs not up to the potential and that is where our constructs get really blurred. If we

need some significant changes to be visible, we need to spend resources, and strengthen the

implementing machinery, creating feedback loops through ordinary citizens and be responsive to

their concerns. Governance systems should follow a cyclical mechanism rather than the top to

down enforcement which we have seen for ages.

In order to bring change aspirations need to circulate through all the channels and make their

presence felt, on the other hand the state should be responsive to the aspirations. The electronic

governance systems are a small tool in the process which will certainly improve this

communication grid. We need to invest our resources, energy on these tools also to achieve the

larger objective. The projects like Lokvani should be promoted to a large extent up so that those

who are alienated from the mainstream processes can at least assert their needs and aspirations.

It is necessary to have a dialogue in a democracy and effective channels of communication are a

must for the success of a democracy. Internet has evolved as a strong medium for the same, we

need to integrate it with our governance processes and public delivery mechanisms for an

effective administration.

- 48 -

REFERENCES:

Bedi K, Singh P.J: Government@net: New governance opportunities in India, Sage Publications,

New Delhi, 2002

Bhatnagar S: “Creating the Enabling Conditions for Targeting the Vulnerable with e-Government:

Findings and Observations from Case Studies”.

Bhatnagar &Jain, “ Administrative response to citizen grievances” in Bureaucracy, Politics and

Administrative Challenge, Pattnayak R. (Ed), 1994, Anmol, New Delhi

Bollier, D: “The rise of Netpolitik: How the internet is changing International politics and

diplomacy”, The Aspen Institute.

De, Rahul: “The Impact of Indian E-Government Initiatives: Issues of Poverty and vulnerability

Reduction and Conflict”, available at www.apdip.net/projects/e-government/capblg/casestudies/India-

De.pdf

Garai, A, Shadrach B: “Taking ICT to every Indian village: opportunities and challenges”, One world

South Asia, 2006, New Delhi.

Shukla A. and Srinivasan R.: “Lokvani- A case of public private Partnership in e governance” IIM

Lucknow case Series: 2005-03.

Singh A.P. : Lokvani an effort to empower the citizens, Information and technologies in developingCountries, Newsletter, Volume 15, No. 2 Volume 15, No. 2

: “Assessment of Impact of Information Technology on Rural Areas of India” MSSRF.

: Good governance through ICT, National Informatics Centre, 2002

: “Information technology policy”, Uttar Pradesh Government, 2004

: “Pro poor public delivery service with ICTs: Making local e- governance work”

Towards Achieving MDGs, APIDP e note11/2007

http://www.upgov.nic.in (Related Links)

http://nicsu.up.nic.in/ (Related Links)

http://sitapur.nic.in/ (Related Links)

http://updesco.up.nic.in/ (Related Links)