Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country accounting for 16.4 per cent of the country’s population. It is also the fourth largest state in geographical area covering 9.0 per cent of the country’s geographical area, encompassing 294,411 square kilometers and comprising of 83 districts, 901 development blocks and 112,804 inhabited villages. The state has a population of about 190 million, according to Census 2011. The state bagged nine SKOCH Order-of-Merit, out of which, it won two Awards.

Key Achievements

The state of UP has won a total of nine Order-of-Merit and it bagged two Awards also for the path-breaking project on Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS), executed by the UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) and . The state bagged six e-Governance Order-of-Merit and one each in the Municipalities and the Governance category.

In the Transport segment, with a purpose of strengthening its service levels and improving its service delivery the UPSRTC embarked on a scheme for Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS). By providing Online Reservation System (ORS), Electronic ticketing, GPS based vehicle tracking and passenger information systems, the corporation has now managed to cover the entire state, which includes the UPSRTC Head Office, 115 depots, 20 regions, 1 car section in Lucknow, 2 central workshops, Drivers’ Training School in Kanpur, 300 bus stations (251 owned and 49 in rented premises) and 11 tyre shops.

The goal of the state administration is to create a system where there is no physical interface between citizens and government staff

Coming to the e-Governance category, CDAC – NOIDA various projects, such as the e-Governance Solution for Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Computerisation of Blood Banks across Rajasthan, Equipment Management & Maintenance System (e-Upkaran) for Rajasthan State and Online License Seva for Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), all won Order-of-Merit. The Department of IT & Electronics’ Project Progress Monitoring Solution (UPPRoMPT) and UPNews360 (Official News Portal of Government of Uttar Pradesh) also won the e-Governance merits.

Looking at the Governance category, UP bagged an Order-of-Merit for the project, ‘MyCity – Mera Shahar Meri Dekh Rekh Mein’, implemented by the District Administration, Kanpur. This was initiated to combat road-trenching issues under JNNURM and popular social media site Facebook is used as a platform. The public is free to comment on project speed, construction anomalies and quality issues along with supporting photographs.

Lastly, under the Municipality category, the Municipal Corporation of Gorakhpur’s Public Grievance Redressal System (PGR) won an Order-of-Merit for UP. Under this any citizen can log on to the web site www.nngkp.in and lodge a complaint. The user immediately gets a SMS and can follow up with the concerned officer and department via SMS, phone or email.

The state’s large base of skilled labour has made it a key hub for IT and ITeS industries

Look Ahead

The goal of the state administration is to create a system where there is no physical interface between citizens and government staff and all services are delivered at the doorstep and/or electronically via the computer, mobile phone or tablet to the citizen. Twenty-six (26) citizen-centric services of eight (8) departments were already being offered via the state portal as of end-2014. By 31 December 2014, UP had achieved the distinction of conducting over 3.70 crore e-transactions through the e-District/State Portal, 14,500 Common Service Centres and 300 Lokvani centres. The state has decided to accept Self Declaration Forms instead of sworn affidavits, along with application forms for availing services of various government departments.The state’s large base of skilled labour has made it a key hub for IT and ITeS industries. Sustained high growth in financial services during the past few years also augurs well for growth prospects of the state. Major contribution may be seen in the Western region of the state, especially Greater Noida. One can expect the state government to devise initiatives for overall development, seeking lessons from competitive states that are marching ahead on development.