Jharkhand stood at 16th position in the SKOCH State of Governance 2018. Jharkhand improved its position by two notches when compared with 2017 level, however, it has not been able to recover to the level of 2016 when it was ranked sixth. Total 12 projects were shortlisted from Jharkhand for assessment and evaluation. Out of these two projects were found impressive.

Catching up Projects

Ranchi Municipal Corporation in Jharkhand has initiated Municipal Hoarding & Asset Management System which is a software application. Market section of any municipality is one of the major sources of revenue generation for the organisation. Ranchi Municipal Corporation has taken this opportunity of automating all aspects of the market section, hoarding, lodges, banquet hall and municipal assets. This is known as “Municipal Hoarding & Asset Management System”.

This software application caters to all the aspects of the complete life cycle of the work starting from receiving of online application from the citizens and vendors to renewal and annual demand generation. The functions one can perform with this system are Online application, Online verification and field survey, allotment and renewal process, annual demand generation and payment collection with real time generation of payment slips with license.

On receiving of the application, the field verification by the field officer of the department is carried out using the mobile App. Once the approval or rejection of the application takes place, an automated SMS and e-mail is sent to the applicant for the further process to be done. Applicants whose requests have been approved are then required to move ahead with the payments of the generated amount, hence generating the payment invoice along with the license. Annual demand based on the approved and registered applications are automatically generated on the 1st of April of all financial year. The mobile app has been developed for the regular survey to be conducted by the department based on any such legal and illegal properties available in the municipal area. The mobile app also has a segment which focuses to the citizen’s grievance. The citizen can get themselves enrolled over the same and can raise their grievance and queries related to any property which is causing problems to them. This request once received by the department is verified and a proper feedback related to the query is resolved. The complete solution helps the municipality in avoiding keeping pending files and queries received by the citizens.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation had earlier implemented a unique project management mechanism called IFRASys E3 for handling public service infrastructure projects that arise out of ward councilors and municipal board recommendations.

ANM, Mother and Child Monitoring & Tracking System, is another project that is promising. Initiated by Dhanbad District Administration, it is a webbased application with mobile App for effective administration and management to bring transformation in the process of tracking ANM through geo-tagging.

As per 2011 Census of Jharkhand, sex ratio in Dhanbad is 909 females per 1000 males which is lower than the national average of 918. Dhanbad District Administration thought of implementing a Tracking and Monitoring Systems for Mother and Childcare services which is an integral and important component for successful implementation of the “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” as well as Pre- Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act. There were no proper databases of ANMs or list of scanning agencies of the district which made the tracking system a herculean task. This mother and child monitoring and tracking system not only eases the tracking of the ANMS on the Village Health Nutrition Day (VHND) but also tracks the ultrasound and any other scanning done during a woman’s pregnancy at government hospitals or private clinics.

The above mentioned objectives are monitored by tracking two modules which are VHND module and Scanning module. The VHND module tracks the activities of the ANMs during the 3 VHND days every week. The mobile App enables the ANMs to update the aforesaid activities performed by them on VHND through geo tagged photographs. Through scanning module, all scanning centers, diagnostic centres and gynecologist clinics register with the web portal and enter all the details of pregnant women after scanning and/after pregnancy termination.

Last year too, the state had done commendable work in District Administration and Municipalities to push good governance initiatives.