A Refereed Monthly International Journal of Management
Challenges in e-Government System in Rajasthan with special reference to Tribal District Dungarpur, Rajasthan, India
Dr. Ritu Khanna Dr. Vipin Khanna
M.Sc(Math’s),M.Ed, Ph.D MCA,M.Tech(CS),MBA(HRM),Ph.D(CS&IT)
Professor & Head ( Mathematics) Scientist ‘D’/Principal System Analysts
Pacific College of Engineering National Informatics Centre
Pacific University,Udaipur(India) Ministry of C&IT, Govt. of India
E-mail : khannaritu.khanna@gmail.com E-Mail : vipin.khanna@nic.in
INTRODUCTION
There are many studies on E-governance projects and they define e-governance in different ways. E-governance is not just the “use of information and communication technology in governance” or “service delivery over internet” or “digital access to government services” bute-governance also includes the participation of public and the poor people. It creates the new interface for citizens to interact with government. It also provides the choice of place from where they want to avail government services. So, in my view, e-governance is “public participation in governance to increase the efficiency, accountability, transparency, convenience and value addition in service delivery by interacting with government through electronic platform.”
World Bank defines (Asia Oceania Electronic Marketplace Association report): “E-government refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.”
Increased transparency, less corruption, better delivery of government services, greater government responsiveness and accountability, and empowerment of citizens – especially poor ones – are commonly cited among the possible benefits of electronic government (e-government) .
In Dungarpur district, most of rural tribal people are BPL. The young generation is moving towards education and thus the most important e-governance services in this district are:
- E-Mitra/CSC (Billing, digital certificates, etc.)
- Land record computerization / Apna Khata (Land Records)
Challenges in e-Government Service Delivery System :
Administrative and Technical Problems
- The many government offices do not have proper adequate hardware infrastructure.
- Lack of dedicated Hardware & Network engineers for solving hardware problems in many organizations. Being a small district no local expertise services are available for immediate repair of Hardware.
- Maintenance cost of hardware & network is very high.
- Most of the departments having lack of regular and centralized backup system.
- No strategy or policy to increase citizen’s confidence and trust on government services.
- Most of the villages have lack of Internet/ Broad Band connections that require for network connectivity.
- The power cut problem in villages creates problem in service deliveries.
Citizen’s Problems:
- Being a Tribal District, Income of the citizens are very low, So they can not afford the internet services.
- They can not pay the charges of hardware and installation cost.
- Citizens face language problems while using computerized services. Most of the applications and websites are either in English or Hindi.
- The citizens are not well aware to handle the computer & ICT.
- Due to low public transport availability in rural area ,print media is not available.
- Due to lack of integration of various projects it is very difficult and confusing to access or remember them.
- Citizens are not aware about various e-Governance projects running for them.
Conclusions :
In this world of digitalization expectation of citizens are also high. e-Governance is the key tool to fulfill those expectations. Each day technology upgrades itself, which also increases the expectations in a qualitative way. This creates continuous challenges for the government.
- Respondents with diminutive information about the projects are also un-sure about the potential benefits of the projects. This indicates that current awareness creation process (if any exists) has some flaws in creating clear impression. Whereas, a significant portion of the respondents who had no idea about e-government, expressed very optimistic opinion after the briefing sessions conducted by investigator.
- The researcher has observed impact of e-Governance on citizens and government employees. E-Governance projects have helped in better administration. This projects helped to promote greater transparency and accountability and provide a citizen friendly environment. These projects also help in better service delivery.
- It is not an easy task to eliminate corruption and it requires a very extra ordinary efforts. E-government has shown promise this regard, and in many instances it has delivered by eliminating or at least reducing corruption in public services delivery.
- Active public participation is required to make e-Governance successful. Negative perception of citizens about service delivery is a major challenge before government but Dungarpur’s citizens are very curious and adoptive so if they will be cognized then it will be more fruitful.
- The Major problem in Dungarpur district is that there is power breakdown is frequent and lasts for a minimum of 6 hours. The another major problem is internet connectivity. Due to low connectivity online e-Governance projects can’t be succeeded as per the expectations.
- To develop information as a resource capable of bringing the citizen closer to the government in a typical G2C interface, it becomes important to evolve all e-governance initiatives around the citizen’s needs.
- BPL families participation is very low in e-governance. The major reasons are: low awareness, less resources and social problems. This issue needs a special attention because the major objective of any project in India is to serve needed poor peoples.
- The e-Governance projects face the challenge of encouraging more women in rural areas to their services. Women participation in urban areas of Dungarpur is satisfactory, but it must increase.
REFRENCES :
- Bachus Michiel (2001), “e-Government and Development Countries: Introduction and Examples”, Research Report, No.3
- Vivek Gupta (2003) “e-Government: The New Revolution”, The ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad, India
iii . E-government From Vision to implementation- book by : Subhash Bhatnagar
- www.Rajasthan.gov.in GOR departments and World bank official web-sites
- www.nic.gov.in, www.deity.gov.in Department of Information Technology, Ministry of communications and Information Technology , Government of India
