This thread is for e-governance including m-governance.

Please continue posting other IT/ITES related news in "Karnataka SEZs|IT/BT Projects Thread" only. This thread is exclusively for IT/ITES in civil administration and public services. But, Rural BPO related news which include e-governance may be posted here. In addition any automation project in any domain which lead to e-governance and anything related to Karnataka on UIDAI Aadhaar may also be posted here.

Karnataka state ranking 15th in e-governance just a year back is today leading state of India in e-governance. To maintain this leadership position new ideas should be introduced in e-governance at a constant rate leading to better public services. Better service may mean fast service, less corruption or anything related this. So let us also use this thread for creating a knowledge base of new ideas in e-governance which may be small or big.

Let me start with a small suggestion. A few days back it was raining heavily in the coastal region. Government declared one particular day as a holiday. But many students and parents were not aware of this and so went to school in wet cloths to just return back. In this case if the school administration had mobile numbers of parents it could have just sent one SMS informing all the parents about holiday. The SMS may be sent by schools for informing so many things starting from simple things like early closing of school to complex things like informing about examination results.

Some important links:
http://www.karnataka.gov.in/egov.html
http://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/
http://mangaloreone.com/
http://www.karnatakavarthe.org/
http://www.ctax.kar.nic.in
https://eproc.karnataka.gov.in/
www.sakala.kar.nic.in
e-grahak

till now,

World’s IT capital is India’s No 15 in e-gov December 31st, 2008 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=30101608&postcount=221)
IT and BT now ‘less-paper’ departments (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=39970442&postcount=383)
Fast tracking e-governance (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=41947908&postcount=434)
Computerization of RTO in Karnataka (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=41947986&postcount=435)
Pilot project for UID in state (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=42020552&postcount=443)
Karnataka to take e-way for government procurement (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=43136228&postcount=478)
Rs. 190 crore funding for e-governance projects in Karnataka (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=43332472&postcount=487)
Karnataka ranks top in providing information under RTI (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=45026228&postcount=540)
Karnataka the best in RTI Act implementation, finds study (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=45188295&postcount=543)
Bijapur: Officials told to prepare for e-governance (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=46693801&postcount=611)
Karnataka launches e-governance programme - Karnataka State Wide Area Network (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=47497193&postcount=662)
Karnataka to introduce 11 e-gov initiatives - Khajane 2, Second Data Center (SDC) and the citizen hub (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49004003&postcount=708)
University Libraries in Karnataka to be interlinked (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49318349&postcount=734)
E-library for advocates soon: Suresh Kumar (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49809979&postcount=771)
E-project to eliminate land scams (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49922519&postcount=779)
Karnataka's e-Governance department to go paperless (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=50205475&postcount=797)
E-governance soon in drugs control department (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=50298301&postcount=805)
Centre to allot Rs 1,070 crore for e-governance (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=50544823&postcount=817)
Centre's Rs 1,070 cr e-gov bonanza for State (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=50629039&postcount=825)
State steps up efforts to adopt IT in governance (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=52691683&postcount=971)
Karnataka to create urban property database (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=54477063&postcount=1072)
Urban property database for 10 more cities (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=54906355&postcount=1093)
MCC to consider digital mapping of Mangalore (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=37741078&postcount=1178) - What is the progress?
KIADB to adopt GIS to map industrial units (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=58384619&postcount=1226)
Process to install GPS in sand lorries gets underway (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=60601411&postcount=5353)
HDFC inks pact with Krishna mutt to offer e-seva (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=61298999&postcount=422)

UIDAI - Aadhaar
DK, UK, Udupi citizens to get unique IDs first (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=51447875&postcount=22)
UID project to be aided by e-governments (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=60746705&postcount=43) - Karnataka is leading the way in the field of e-governance.

'One' projects
Mangalore One project to take shape soon (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=46547983&postcount=1907)
MangaloreOne opens in MCC building (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=58362255&postcount=5013)
Five MysoreOne centres launched (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=57197425&postcount=1160)

On rural front
Kalam's `PURA' vision set to be launched in Karnataka (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=43073188&postcount=19)
Karnataka to set up telemetric gauging centres in gram panchayats (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=43179060&postcount=38)
Pancha Tantra Panchayatha Online System for Belle Grama Panchayat (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=44549482&postcount=87)
Cabinet Approves "Kalam Pura" Project in 200 Hoblis (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=45048482&postcount=97)
Daily updates on MGREGA (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=45974205&postcount=124)
SMART GRID: A SMART SOLUTION TO FUTURE POWER CRISES (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=45993509&postcount=128)
H.D. KOTE TALUK GPS COMPUTERISED UNDER GRAM SWARAJ SCHEME (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=46044553&postcount=131)
ISRO’s satellites to help out farmers (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=46078567&postcount=132)
Software to track the girl child’s academic progress (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=46227439&postcount=134)
MGREGA beneficiaries, pensioners to get smart cards (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49525159&postcount=186)
A new employment avenue for rural youth (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49864463&postcount=190)
Plan to computerise village ‘chavadis' (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=53830989&postcount=274)
Tumkur village takes a digital leap (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=55380675&postcount=303)

Here are links to rural BPOs which may or may not be carrying out back office works of e-governance.
Rural BPOs: Karnataka's latest in IT revolution (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=42985934&postcount=12)
The BPOs are calling Bharat (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=44485146&postcount=85)
Yeddyurappa promises 16 more rural BPOs in State (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=46869767&postcount=154)
A BPO that employes only widows (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=49477939&postcount=185)
RuralShores Sets up a New Center in Thirthahalli (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=50574635&postcount=209)
Rural BPO: Karnataka keeps IT biggies away (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=51609883&postcount=228)
Rural BPOs: State on job (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=58156769&postcount=330)
Central funds for IT parks, BPOs in rural areas sought (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=58738839&postcount=339)

Also read
Intelligent Transport System|KSRTC-Mysore (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1130179)

eega mundakke ...............

Mysore: The transport department authorities will soon go hi-tech in identifying habitual traffic rule violators in the state.

If everything goes according to plans, the department officials will start using smartcard readers by January 2011. This will help them trace the habitual traffic offenders on the spot.

Transport and road safety commissioner Bhaskar on Saturday told reporters that they have issued 15 lakh smartcards to vehicle users across the state and 80,000 in Mysore. In another six months, they will procure a smartcard reader from which they can easily record the number of traffic rule violations committed by a smartcard holder. If the person violates the rules for seven consecutive times, their driving licence will be cancelled, Bhaskar claimed.

The advanced equipment will be put to use within six months. With this, the officers can check details by inserting smartcard into the readers or enter the type of violation by the vehicle user in any part of the state. Initially, it will be used by RTO officials and later they will also distribute it to police officers. Karnataka will be first in the country to use this software, the commissioner claimed.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/Beware-smartcard-can-catch-you-jumping-traffic-signals/articleshow/6241840.cms)

Karnataka, as frontrunner in ITES, should introduce smart card for public distribution system to tackle corruption in the scheme, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, has suggested.

Addressing an interactive session on food security organised by Institute of Social and Economic Change, Bangalore Climate Change - Initiative and the Department of Planning, Ahluwalia said the Planning Commission would suggest smart cards for PDS all over the country.

Every beneficiary of the scheme would get a smart card. When the beneficiary swipes his card after getting food grain at subsidised rates from the fair price shop, the subside component would be credited to the supplier. “There is no scope for stealing of food grains once the smart card system is introduced. None can deny the beneficiary food grain,” Ahluwalia said.

On the proposed Food Security Act, Ahluwalia said that the planned Act would confer on the beneficaries the right to move the court if they were denied food grain.

Ahluwalia said percentage of the population living in poverty had reduced down in the last few years. However, the quantity of food grains supplied through the PDS had not been reduced. The country needed a production-oriented solution to assure food security and tackle high inflation of food prices.

He also said that besides food, providing other basic necessities - health, clean water, shelter, road - was also important. Although incomes of the people had been increasing, the quality of water had been going down. The Planning Commission set the target of agriculture growth in the 11th five year plan at 4 per cent against 2 per cent in the previous plan. “However, he added only through effective measures to increase food production could achieve the growth.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/85263/montek-suggests-pds-smart-cards.html)

MANGALORE: Mangalore University students from 2007-08 academic year batches onwards can now heave a huge sigh of relief. They will not only get marks list within 15-days of the completion of evaluation process, but also can rest assured that the results so given will not come under the cloud of manipulation, a stigma that has been attached to results of BBM and LLB examinations conducted by the university prior to 2007.

A Bangalore-based agency that developed examination software for Mysore University and Karnataka State Open University has also developed the examination software for Mangalore University. Under this new system, a bar coded sticker with names of the student and their registration number is affixed on the top quarter portion of the facing sheet of the answer booklets issued to them by the invigilators in examination halls.

This bar coded part is separated from answer sheet in examination registry of the university, laser-coded to generate a random number, the sticker of which is affixed in the bottom quarter portion of facing sheet of the answer booklet. After the respective answer booklets are evaluated, the examiner enters the marks on cover page of the answer sheet manually on to OMR sheets instead of earlier practice of entering it into form `A'.

The OMR sheets, which can accommodate marks of 15 students on one sheet -- six on one side, and nine on the other -- are scanned, a process, which takes two seconds. This data is then collated with internal assessment and project marks of students that are already entered and a computer ledger sheet generated. This ledger sheet is manually verified for discrepancies if any and the marks list generated after due verification.

T C Shivashankara Murthy, V-C, who made a few random checks of the BA, BSc and BCom results for the semester announced last week told `The Times of India' that computerization of the tabulation process will root out the problem of malpractice in results, and expedite their announcement. The university has adopted same process for its PG examinations where two OMR sheets are used, as there is system of double valuation.

The agency that has developed the software will run the show for next three to four years before handing it over to university to independent use. The agency in the meanwhile will train university staff to use this software. Certain aberrations noticed in use of this software while announcing BA, BSc and BCom results for the even semester would be rectified when the odd-semester results are announced in November, the V-C added.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/New-evaluation-software-to-rule-out-manipulation/articleshow/6249105.cms)

http://www.ksrtc.in/images/mb4.jpg

KSRTC project AWATAR- Mobile booking has been recognised as innovation in mobile content and application for masses and awarded “mBillionth South Asia Awards -2010 congress”. The award was presented by Sri. Savitur Prasad, Secretary( I.T), DIT, NCR of Delhi at Expo & Awards Gala, Hotel Intercontinental Eros, Nehru Place, New Delhi on July 23rd 2010. The award was received by Sri. Channabasappa, Chief Manager(Marketing & Commuter Relations).

ksrtc.in

KSRTC's mobile service gets award

Staff Reporter

It is the first in the country to introduce booking by cellphone

BANGALORE: The mobile initiative of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has brought to the corporation an international award – mBillionth South Asia Award 2010, recently.

The Award is jointly instituted by Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and Digital Empowerment Foundation.

Successful introduction

It is given in recognition of the successful introduction and implementation of mobile ticket booking under m-governance initiative of the corporation.

KSRTC Managing Director Gaurav Gupta received the award at the mBillionth Mobile South Asia Congress and Award Gala held in New Delhi recently. Mr. Gupta was also a plenary speaker on “Expanding mobile for masses; m-Governance, Contest and Services and Citizen Services Delivery” at the event, according to a KSRTC release.

The corporation is the first State Road Transport undertaking in the country to introduce mobile booking, making easier the process of advance ticket booking.

A passenger can book the ticket by sending SMS “KSRTC” to 56767.
The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/28/stories/2010072864371000.htm)

E-governance assumes key role in UID implementation

At one point, before the spread of the Internet and mobile connectivity, the database filing process in India included farm silos stacked almost to the roof with piles of paper.

Now, fledgling departments of e-governance, where information is collated electronically and databases stored and shared via the Internet, have been designated as liaisons between the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) and local officials who will be physically handling registrations.

In states that still lack a functioning e-governance department, the local governments will hand UID duties to their information technology wings. The bureaus will oversee the implementation of at least 600 million 12-digit unique identity numbers in the next four years.

“They will be the departments which hold everything together,” said R.S. Sharma, director general of UIDAI. “It’s an idea whose time has come, the idea of (digital) state data centres.”

Unique identity is one of the 27 mission mode projects—designations given by the national e-governance programme to projects that would help establish it as the efficient new way to govern in the technological age.

“UID (also known as Aadhaar) is a big part of the national e-governance plan,” Sharma said, “and a project which has the potential to transform e-governance in this country.”

The efficient gathering and storing of biometrics and personal data will play a crucial role in UID’s success.

Praveen Bhadada, a manager at Delhi-based Zinnov Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd, said the system would “enable analytics, monitoring, fraud management and de-duplication” at the state level, essential to a successful UID enrolment process.

“This will enable better efficiencies in terms of delivery of citizen services and help put in place common standards, verification process and faster rollout,” he said.

The departments will link every bit of a registrant’s information—including biometrics, permanent account numbers and personal statistics—at one location, which will then be easily accessible from any computer.

“I carry around so many different numbers,” said Sunil Chandiramani, partner and business leader of government services at Ernst and Young, who has been the audit and consulting firm’s point person on UID investment. “From an e-governance perspective, if everything was in one place, a credit card company could access it, my own company could do a background check, anyone could go online and pull up my information—it would make a big difference.”

The system’s accessibility—it will be open to anyone with an Internet or mobile connection—will make it the fastest way to reach the largest number of people. “These departments have been providing citizens with similar services. They’re strongly equipped to deal with UID issues,” Chandiramani said. “And they have the reach that’s really required.”

Essentially, a technological system will be serving as an all-purpose service centre, eliminating costly, time-consuming verification processes. “The goal that any government project would have is to have single citizen service centres,” Chandiramani said. “What makes sense is a single centre for a citizen to go and take care of all needs” related to their unique identity.

In May, Karnataka completed test runs, in which more than 25,000 residents in rural areas were enrolled in UID between April and May. It was the first crucial test for the state’s highly developed department of e-governance, a reflection of Karnataka’s technical advancement and a model for other states in the months leading to August’s national UID test run. “Karnataka is different from everyone else,” said Sharma. “It’s one of the most progressive states. In terms of e-governance, they are forerunners in the country.”
M.N. Vidyashankar, principal e-governance secretary in Karnataka, said his department, with only 23 staffers in its Bangalore headquarters, is the smallest government department in the state. Despite its size, the efficient nature of the e-system has allowed it to complete 40 government projects, he said, including a human resource management system, which have prepared it for a heightened role with UID.

K.K. Sharma, assistant director general at Aadhaar’s regional office in Bangalore, said without the efficiency of the department his office would not have met its pre-test goal of 25,000 enrollees.

The major hurdle facing UID implementation teams on the ground will be connectivity— many areas of the country are not wired for Internet or mobile phone usage. R.S. Sharma said they would rely on traditional paper methods of filing until technology reached those parts, but added accessibility would quickly spread. “In most parts of the country, mobile connection is spreading fast—the issue should be resolved quickly,” he said.

“We’ll also be using solar panels for power in some areas. We’ve learned how to overcome the deficiencies.” Vidyashankar said his team experienced no problems during the proof-of-concept runs.

Recently, at enrolment centres in Karnataka’s Tumkur district, officials were seen taking biometric information on laptop computers and other information on pieces of paper, the data to be transported to Bangalore some 75km away and filed electronically.

livemint.com (http://www.livemint.com/2010/07/21212714/Egovernance-assumes-key-role.html?atype=tp)

Looks like Bengaluru has set the trend.

Court SMS service evokes good response

B.S. Ramesh

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/03/images/2010080355840801.jpg
The service will be free for the first six months

BANGALORE: Launched less than a week ago, the SMS service conceived by the Karnataka High Court to help litigants and advocates know the status of their cases has met with good response.

As of Saturday, the facility developed entirely by the High Court in close association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has received more than 1,500 messages.

Sources in the High Court told The Hindu that the facility was free and neither the NIC nor the High Court charged any money for the enquiries received through SMS. The expenditure of the facility would be borne by the Centre for the first six months. Thereafter, it remains to be seen on whether the Centre would continue subsidising the facility or levy a minimum charge.

Sources said Karnataka had become one of the few States to go in for such a system to know the status of the case in the High Court and the Circuit Benches in Dharwad and in Gulbarga.
The SMS facility could be used for ascertaining the status of an application filed for obtaining certified copies of the orders and judgments and a case being heard in a court hall.

For example, if a litigant wanted to know the case status, all he had to do was to message from his mobile phone: KARHCCS <Case Type > <Case No> <Case Year> <Bench> to 9212357123, a dedicated mobile number.

The sender would get a response about the case.

Similarly, if a person wanted to obtain information about a certified copy, he had to message KARHCCC <Case Type> <CCA No> <CCAYear > <Bench>. Here <CCAYear> should be four digits and the Bench can be Bangalore, Dharwad or Gulbarga. However, the facility to know the status of a case was available only for the High Court in Bangalore.
Touch screen
Apart from providing information via SMS, the High Court has installed four information kiosks on its premises in Bangalore and two each in Dharwad and Gulbarga respectively.

These kiosks provide information regarding the cause list, status of a case, status of application for a certified copy, judicial deposits and all other information available on the High Court website. This facility too was developed with the assistance of the NIC.
The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/03/stories/2010080355840800.htm)

Wipro Infotech, the India-focused IT arm of the Wipro group has won the contract for building a nationwide police software that will be used to track criminals across the states. The software is the most crucial piece in the effort to use information technology (IT) to catch criminals and prevent crime, under a Rs2,000 crore police computerization project.

The application will be deployed in all the 20,000 plus police stations and headquarters, connecting them with each other and the New Delhi situated National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

"The application has to be designed so that any police officer sitting in any police station across the country is able to access crime records from across the country," said Ranbir Singh, head for government products, Wipro Infotech.

With the software, not only will citizens be able to trace the status of their complaints and find details such as the number of crimes in their locality, but it will also strengthen the hand of the police.

"Till now, if someone steals a vehicle in one state and drives it across the border into another one, it is nearly impossible to track and trace him.. Under the current system, even if a stolen vehicle is recovered in a different state, it is very difficult to hand it back to the original owner," he added.

The police modernization plan is one of the 27 large-scale computerization (e-governance) projects undertaken by the government since four years ago. Around 20 of the projects have either been implemented or are in various stages of implementation.

Police modernization project will involve keeping details of crimes and investigations in the digital format. Each state will have its own database of all the crime-related details, which will also be kept on the central database at the National Crime Records Bureau.

The introduction of IT will also bring predictive and analytical techniques, currently used by companies to study their customers, into crime prevention. Along with the Financial Intelligence Unit, a software developed by Wipro for the finance ministry, the crime prevention software will put together information from different spheres, such as banking and police stations, to detect crimes like terrorist planning.

While Wipro refuses to discuss the financial details of the project, the win is expected to give the company a leg up in bidding for other similar projects. It had implemented a similar state-wide project in Karnataka four years ago, giving it an edge over competition in winning the current project.

It is also setting up the central databases of five states in India, which will store all the data of the respective state governments including land records, leases, police records etc.. A total of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore is being spent on infusing IT into government, including around Rs 10,000 spent already.

One of the biggest contracts of all, the contract for setting up and runningthe central database of the unique identification numbers of all citizens, will shortly come up for grabs. Wipro is expected to compete with other biggies such as Infosys and TCS for the contract.

DNA (http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_wipro-signs-deal-to-bring-it-to-policing_1418082)

There is one Cyber Crime Police Station in Bangalore.
http://cyberpolicebangalore.nic.in/

Second Cyber lab to come up in Mangalore (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=44346862&postcount=1576) - What is the status?

Cyber police to launch mobile services (http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article438571.ece)

Some more links
http://drvsacharya.blogspot.com/2009/10/tackling-cyber-crime.html
http://www.karnataka.com/govt/links/police-dept.html

Unique identification numbers for citizens in Karnataka is expected to be available by October, as the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is planning to distribute the 16-digit numbers to citizens in Tumkur and Mysore between October and December, as part of its pilot project.

The pilot project would cover 65 lakh people in both the districts, sources in the Authority told Deccan Herald.

UIDAI has asked the State to be prepared to launch the pilot project. The first UID number is expected to be issued in the first week of October, sources said.

The Karnataka government has floated a tender inviting private firms to provide infrastructure including opening of enumeration centres, undertaking enumeration of people, bringing people to UID centre, data collection and other field work, said M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary to E-Governance Department, Government of Karnataka.

He further mentioned the State government had hastened preparations for the launch of pilot project to ensure its completion on time.

The two districts were selected for the pilot project following Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s request. The chief minister in his letter to the Authority promised to extend all required infrastructure facilities for the project.

The Authority has also conducted Proof of Concept (PoC) for adults in both Mysore and Tumkur districts where it tested its system recently.

In both places, a total of 20,000 bio-metric details were collected for PoC. In Tumkur district, the PoC was conducted in Bukkapatna, Chelur, Bellavi, Dodderi and Kibbanahalli villages, while it was held in Varuna, Hadinaru, Thippur, Hammara Halli, and Gowdagere villages in Mysore.

The Authority had chosen Widia Poorna Prajna School on Tumkur Road in Bangalore to conduct the PoC for children. Officials took bio-metric details- face photo, 10 finger prints, and iris scan- of 1,000 children from LKG to 10th standard (4 to 15-year-olds).

UIDAI had chosen people of all sections of the society, including manual labourers, for the adult PoC. The Authority's top brass headed by Chairman Nandan Nilekani reviewed the PoC results and had expressed satisfaction over the outcome. Results showed that it took only five minutes to issue the UID to one person.

The authority had earlier announced that it would issue the first UID number between August 2010 and February 2011, and that it plans to issue 600 million UIDs over the next four years. Apart from Karnataka, the UIDAI has also identified two more districts in south India-Medak and Krishna in Andhra Pradesh - for the pilot project. In north India the authority is in the process of finalising the places for launching the project, sources said.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/85695/tumkur-mysore-dists-chosen-uidais.html)

This may not be directly linked to e-governance but some what related.

Raghava M.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/03/image/2010080355750801.jpg

* In one case, an accused was found in possession of 60 SIM cards

BANGALORE: The tight security system put in place to prevent mobile phone misuse is dysfunctional, a senior police official has said. This, he said, had serious repercussions for national security. Following this, in recent weeks, the police have ferreted out mobile retailers who misuse address documents, allotting multiple connections using a single document.

Concerned with this apparently rampant practice, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has imposed penalties to the extent of Rs. 30 crore. But this has failed to be a deterrent for private service providers. They have also not bothered to pay the penalty, the official told The Hindu.

This paper a few weeks ago reported the widespread misuse of address-proof documents by mobile retailers. Following this, the police raided several retailers and found that the practice was more prevalent than originally thought.

During the raids in different parts of the State, the police found that the retailers, the service providers and Department of Telecommunication's Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring Cell have not been adhering to the norms laid down for issue of pre-paid SIM cards.

“Private service providers have been allowed to expand the reach of mobile phone networks at the cost of security. The misuse of address-proof documents for obtaining pre-paid SIM cards is rampant and is worrying,” said the senior police official overseeing the raids.

In several criminal investigations, the police have found that persons accused in various criminal activities used several SIM cards to cover up their activities. In one instance, the Bangalore police found an accused possessing 60 SIM cards. It was possible to obtain the SIM cards as retailers were handing them over using the address-proof documents of other genuine customers, the police said. Under the Indian Telegraph Act, the retailer (point of supply of SIM cards), the telecom service provider and its authorised representative, besides DoT's enforcement cell have been asked to ensure that mobile phone connections are issued only after proper verification of the applicant's address.

The police come into the picture only when the service provider or the DoT enforcement cell files a complaint accusing the person or agency of faking documents.

“Neither the service provider nor the DoT Cell has until now registered a single complaint,” the officer said.

Recently, Director-General of Police and Inspector-General of Police Ajai Kumar Singh held a meeting with the police officers, the representatives of the DoT and telecom service providers.

Apart from conducting joint inspections of documents, it was decided to make the retailers aware of the consequences of ignoring the verification of address.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/03/stories/2010080355750800.htm)

Police dept goes hi-tech in twin cities

Basavaraj F Kattimani, TNN, Aug 3, 2010, 10.01pm IST

HUBLI: Sunday was a red-letter day for the people of the twin cities and the police department-the long-pending demands for police station in Ashok Nagar and a traffic management centre were fulfilled on that day.

With Hubli-Dharwad Police Commissionerate going hi-tech, the police department received the much-needed facilities to deal with law and order. One inspector, two sub-inspectors, four assistant sub-inspectors and eight head constables and 52 constables have been sanctioned for the new station which covers 1.25 to 1.5 lakh people.

The department has devised an action plan to improve the traffic scene with the help of Karnataka State Traffic and Transport Administration. Following suggestions to set up a traffic management centre, the department elicited suggestions from experts in BVB and SDM colleges and installed CCTV cameras at nine road junctions in the twin cities to monitor the traffic. The centres, set up at sub-urban police station (Hubli) and Town police station (Dharwad), began functioning on Sunday.

CCTVS, E-CHALLANS

With the help of the CCTVs, traffic police will now be able to streamline the traffic system besides making errant motorists fall in line. The staff, which watches the traffic movement/ violations from the CCTV feed, will inform the traffic police of the respective areas for further action.

This apart, the commissionerate has put to use a fleet of 14 hi-tech patrolling vehicles equipped with GPS system. It will monitor the twin cities round-the-clock.

For the first time, e-challan system has also been introduced to rein in traffic violators. This will enable the police to issue spot and court challans to errant motorists. At present, 10 PDAs (personal digital assistants) are in use.

Hubli-Dharwad police commissioner Raghavendra Auradhkar the technology would help them serve the people better. "Technology-driven policing will reduce the crime rate for sure. All GPS-fitted vehicles will be on round-the-clock service. Senior police officers can trace their location while sitting at their offices," he added.
TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Police-dept-goes-hi-tech-in-twin-cities/articleshow/6253417.cms)

http://mangalorean.com/images/newstemp26/20100804fishing-1.JPG

MANGALORE AUG 4, 2010: The new fishing season 2010-2011 has begun in the western coast with a new hope and new methods of fishing. Thanks to the efforts made by the Fisheries department starting from this season the state fisheries will go high tech. The state coastal fisheries sector will monitor fishing expeditions with the help of the Satellite. It will help the fishing boats to target their catch, rationalize it and maximize the production.

According to the director of state fisheries department Mr. Veerappa Gowda "The initiative taken by the Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation (KFDC) in this regard will help the fishermen in pinpointing their fishing expedition with the help of the Satellite guided technology. About 200 fishing vessels in Karnataka coastal areas will get gadgets like fish finder, Global Positioning System and echo-sounders."

This was the first set of fishing vessels that will be covered in the first phase of this ambitious programme. As a result fish varieties that were unheard in these areas especially the high value consumer markets will be flooded with not just Mackerels and Sardines and Prawns but also varieties like Grouper, Yellow Finned Tuna, Marlins, giant three dotted crabs, Red rings (a variety of giant prawns that are red in colour) giant squids, Ribbon fish, Japanese oil Sardines, Anchovies, Silver fish, blue and pink perches and King fish.

These are all very meaty types of fishes and presently they cross into the pacific region from the Mediterranean and move over to into the deep seas before the fishermen could locate them. But with the new mapping devices racks of these fishes could be seen much before they arrive within Indian EEZ.

If everything goes as planned the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Fisheries will tie up for satellite mapping of the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to help the Karnataka fishermen in targeting the shoals of fish in the Arabian Sea.

Karnataka will be the second state in the country after Gujarat to go high tech fishing. The ISRO is expected to provide the uplinking facility to the department of fisheries.

The department will write to the ISRO to provide the facility of unlinking as soon as all the 200 vessels get their gadgets. This high tech link will help the fishermen in the state to complete their fishing in just 3-5 hours in a day as they will be going to the target area directly from the coast after getting the satellite confirmation. This will not just save precious fuel but also minimize wastage of man hours. "But only those vessels that adhere to the Marine Fisheries Regulation Act will be provided this facility" Mr. Gowda told.

Most of the common fish varieties like Seer, Pomfret, Mackerels, Sardines, and Prawns will also improve in availability in Bangalore market. The Metro Cash and Carry which has set up a buying mechanism at Mangalore and also the large scale buyers will be the major beneficiaries in the emerging scenario.

Though the official fishing season will begin only August 10, the bigger boats have already left on August 1 and will return to the coast only on 10th August according the deputy director of Fisheries Mr. Suresh Kumar.

The electronic gadgets will be supplied to the vessels with the help of the Union ministry of agriculture department of Fisheries and animal husbandry. The government has sanctioned Rs. 2 crore for this project as the first installment. The satellite guided fisheries will minimize financial risks of the fishermen and also helps the fishermen to land the catch quickly who will enhance the value of fish in the export as well as domestic markets.

Mangalorean (http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=190574)

Will this system be useful for search and rescue operations in case of adverse conditions like bad weather?

New Mangalore Port to have ERP solutions (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=54750159&postcount=4219)
Mangalore: Corporation bank ties up with UIDAI (http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=190570)
Cellular firms may install phone jammers in Karnataka jails (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_cellular-firms-may-install-phone-jammers-in-karnataka-jails_1418585)

Chelur might be Karnataka’s first village to get the unique identification number
Published: Thursday, Aug 5, 2010, 9:20 IST
By Rohith BR | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Villagers of Chelur, Tumkur district, may be the first to get access to their Unique Identity numbers. Sources in the regional wing of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said that the distribution of UIDs would start from the very villages where Proof of Concept (POC) studies were undertaken a few months ago.

Such studies were taken up in select districts of the state.
“Tumkur and Mysore have been chosen for the distribution of Unique IDs first in Karnataka, as priority would be given to villages where the POC was carried out,” said an official. It may be noted that on April 13, 2010, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), of which Nandan Nilekani is the chairman, began the work of enumeration of adult citizens through a POC exercise in Chelur village.

Sources in the UIDAI said that the distribution of UIDs would begin in the month of September or October 2010, once the state government had finalised enrollment agencies which would be entrusted with the task of collecting biometric data. “Once the biometric data comes, namely the finger print, iris and the photograph, the UIDAI would distribute UIDs,” said UIDAI (Karnataka) deputy director general Ashok MR Dalwai.

Sources in the e-governance department of the state government, which is also the nodal agency for the project in Karnataka, said that the department is in the process of shortlisting agencies for the enrollment of biometric data for the UID project. “We will finalise the process within a month or 90 days,” the official said.
DNA (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_chelur-might-be-karnataka-s-first-village-to-get-the-unique-identification-number_1419036)

Answer scripts to be compared with solutions fed into computers
Evaluation to go digital at VTU soon
Arunima Rajan Bangalore, Aug 9, DHNS

The evaluation of answer scripts at Visvesvaraya Technological University could soon go digital if the ongoing pilot project passes accuracy tests.

The project would be of immense benefit to both students and faculty. It proposes to ease the work load on the teaching faculty as scheme of evaluation would be made available at their finger tips.

Instead of manually evaluating answer sheets, the evaluators could compare answers of the candidates with the solutions already fed into the computer. They would be able to access the scanned copies of answer sheets.

Even answer scripts of students can be mailed respective candidates in seconds. Long days of anxious waiting for students to access answer sheets would be a thing of the past.

"We are testing the accuracy of the new mode of evaluation. If desired results are achieved during the first phase of testing, this method will be introduced for MBA, MCA and B Tech. courses," VTU Vice Chancellor Maheshappa told Deccan Herald.

Immense benefit

Digital evaluation would immensely benefit students as well as the teachers who are often under pressure to evaluate thousands of scripts manually.

Maheshappa said thousands of students apply for revaluation and it is a difficult task to preserve and search answer scripts. Teachers too have to evaluate multiple times. Computerisation of the process will redress all these problems.

According to the statistics available on the University’s official website, Visvesvaraya Technological Unit has 144 affiliated colleges offering under graduate courses in 27 disciplines and PG programme in 66 disciplines.

The intake at Under Graduate level is about 45,000 students and it is 7,500 for PG courses.

New software

Close to 1,500 answer scripts of doctorate students have been evaluated using the new software during the initial phase. The score card of their four core subjects is used as a yard stick for granting sanction to their research work. The project has been outsourced to a private company whose details are yet to be disclosed.

According to the officials, the preliminary results are quite satisfactory and the details would be officially announced after successful completion of the pilot.


DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/87446/evaluation-go-digital-vtu-soon.html)

Raviprasad Kamila

* Networks give access to databases in different disciplines

MANGALORE: The advent of digital library networks in recent years has given a boost to reading, referring and publishing by teachers, researchers and students in educational institutions.

These networks provide access to scholarly journals, e-books and other databases in different disciplines, says M.K. Bhandi, Librarian of Mangalore University.

Some of the digital library networks are UGC-INFONET (University Grants Commission Information Network) of the Digital Library Consortium, the Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology Consortium (INDEST), the Health Science Library and Information Network (HELINET) and Consortium and Journals'-Gate (J-Gate), he said.

The UGC-INFONET at the Mangalore University library at Mangalagangotri now provides access to more than 5,500 e-journals and over 50,000 e-books, according to Prof. Bhandi.

In addition, the university library has subscribed to J-Gate, through which the members can have access to over 18,300 e-journals. Since this network is connected to 400 computers on campus, teachers, researchers and students can read, refer and download them in their respective departments.

Prof. Bhandi says that many first-semester postgraduate students prefer logging on to the networks at the university library rather than in their departments since they need some guidance on searching for information on the network.

Ever since the university introduced UGC-INFONET in 2004, the number of articles published by its faculty members in ISSN (International Standard Book Number) journals has increased from 75 in 2004-05 to 333 in 2007-08, Prof. Bhandi says.

Of the 276 universities in the country, the ranking of the Mangalore University library in the usage of e-journals through UGC-INFONET ranged between 56 and 58 from 2005-06 to 2009-10. At present, library members can have access to it only on the university campus. HELINET

Janet Dotty Lobo, Librarian, Father Muller Charitable Medical Institutions, says that HELINET provides access to 673 e-sources, including journals, books, year books and clinical works such as Medicinal Clinics of North America.

Over 600 medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, paramedical and AYUSH colleges under RGUHS in the State have subscribed to it.

“Members of our library can have access to it in their houses and places of work by using a specific user name and password,” she said. INDEST

M.P. Gowda, Librarian, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Surathkal, said that members of the college could access 2,000 e-journals and 203 e-books from their laptops anywhere on the campus, including hostels of students.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/11/stories/2010081160150300.htm)

What is the percentage of coverage? How many colleges and universities are connected with e-libraries? To what extent?

R. Krishna Kumar

* It was conceived and designed by NIE staff
* The software's utility can be scaled up to provide solution at the State-level
* ‘It is basically a capacity-balancing tool considering the demand and supply'

MYSORE: Help is at hand for power distribution companies in the State to ensure equitable electricity supply through better supply-demand management and minimise unscheduled load shedding.

A software, conceived and designed by the faculty members of the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), has been tested vigorously and found to be effective in better grid management.

Following the recent power crisis which became unbearable during summer, the district administration sought the help of the NIE staff.

Team

G.L. Shekar, vice-principal of NIE and project director, constituted a team to develop the software. The team came up with a solution after having spent around 60 man-hours.

He told The Hindu that the software underwent beta testing at the college level and was found to be effective.

The end users should use the software and give more inputs about the real-world situation for maximising its utility.

The software's utility could be scaled up to provide solution at the State-level by integrating it with the SCADA network of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTCL).

The SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System) helps monitor and track energy supply to different electricity supply companies, the quantum of energy consumed and interruptions, if any, in real-time situation.

Sanjeev V. Lalgudi, a lecturer in the Department of Information Science and Engineering at the NIE who was associated with the project, said the software functioned on a simple logic and was a cost-effective solution to better power distribution management. It was basically a capacity-balancing tool considering the demand and supply, he said.

Database

Mr. Lalgudi said the software had a database of the feeders, including information such as their capacity, receiving station feeding power to them and scheduled power cut timings.

The software displays the ‘Demand Management' screen with details of power utilisation and enables grid managers to identify and select the feeder to which power supply can be cut. “We visited the receiving stations and grid sub-stations at Hootagalli, Kadakola and other places to collect and collate the data,” he added.

“If there are four feeders and one is an emergency unit catering to institutions such as hospitals, the grid managers' choice will be limited to three feeders. But an informed decision can be made by rotating the duration of power cut for each of the three feeders rather than randomly disconnecting power supply,” Mr. Lalgudi said.

“On receiving the command, the software's ‘Demand Management' screen flashes the result and indicates from which feeder load can be reduced, when the supply to the feeder was cut during the last 24 hours and the duration of the power cut,” said Mr. Lalgudi who received guidance and inputs from K. Raghuveer, head of the Department of Information Science and Engineering, and T. Anantha Padmanabha, head of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, apart from the staff of Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd.

The cost incurred in developing the software was pegged at Rs. 60,000 but the cost-benefit potential is reckoned to be immense.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/11/stories/2010081161040300.htm)

Federation of Karnataka Tobacco Growers’ Association has urged the Tobacco Board and the Ministry of Commerce to implement e-auction system at all tobacco platforms in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh when the auction begins next month.

Addressing a news conference here, Federation President B V Javaregowda said though the Board launched e-auction on a pilot basis in one platform each in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it has been shelved.

The authorities lack any interest to implement this from next month. A delegation of Virginia Tobacco growers led by MPs of this region and Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa met Union Commerce minster and communicated to him regarding benefits of the e-auction system. It brings total transperancy in the market, he said.

The delegation also appealed to the Government to revoke the order on 15 per cent penalty and a fine of Rs two per kg of tobacco. The tobacco grown in Hunsur and Periyapatna are in demand in the western and European countries. It is a big source of foreign exchange too.

However, the Central Tobacco Research Institute(CTRI) established in Hunsur has closed its Research and Development facility.

The full-fledged research station at Sollepura which was mainly catering to producing seed for tobacco farmers is now defunct. The farmers now have to depend on outsourced seed for producing 2011 crop which a risky proposition. Also, there is a lack of interest among scientists to work for the welfare of Karnataka’s tobacco growers. The growers have not been able to realise benefits of contemporary varieties in tobacco cultivation which farmers in other Indian growth zones are getting. Moreover, the scientists are recommending indiscriminate use of pesticides in collusion with pesticide dealers. The farmers who spray high doses has resulted in low quality tobacco, affecting its export potential, he said. Federation Secretary Vikram Raje Urs was present.

The Hindu (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/86934/tobacco-growers-favour-e-auction.html)

Good that demand is coming up from farmers.

Gayathri V Raj Mysore, Aug 10, DHNS

In the first instance of its kind in the State, a government medical college which provides affordable treatment to thousands of rural residents every day is proceeding towards achieving a paperless work atmosphere.

As part of the upgradation process, Mysore Medical College and Research Centre (MMC&RI) is installing the Campus Resource Management (CRM) software, an automation tool, through which the entire administration process will be computerised within a month.

All manual work pertaining to salary, admission, fees etc is being computerised with software from the Bangalore-based VAPS Technology Private Limited.

Fifteen modules comprising Administration, Payments, Biometric (both office staff and students), Inventory management, Accounts, Fees, Calendar of events, SMS package, Examination, Alumni Association, Hostel Management, Library, Hospital management, Statistical reports are being completely computerised, Dean Venkatesh said.

Most of the work is complete and in a month, all paper work would be withdrawn, says computer programmer Chinnaswamy.

Twenty-five members from all departments are being trained to handle the software.
A parent kiosk set up at the premises can be accessed by the students round the clock. Two thousand smart cards have been distributed among the staff and students. The students can verify their internal marks, fee structure and the examination details with the help of the smart cards.

The government has approved the installation of the software at the college as a pilot project.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa will launch the project during his visit to Mysore on August 12 to open a branch of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology being set up at the K R Hospital premises.

After successful implementation of Campus Resource Management software, the government has plans to extend the facility to another 10 colleges in the State, according to sources.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/87686/govt-med-college-mysore-go.html)

Nagesh Prabhu

Bangalore: Issue of biometric bar-coded ration cards to households in the last few months by the Food and Civil Supplies Department has helped eliminating nearly 8.5 lakh bogus ration cards from PDS.

Besides checking pilferage of foodgrains, the issue of such cards to 74 lakh households in the Sate has saved foodgrains worth Rs. 20 crore a month, which otherwise reaches to bogus ration card holders, according to officials in the Food and Civil Supplies Department. The Government annually spends nearly Rs. 800 crore for food subsidy.

After the Union Government began a drive to check hoarding of foodgrains and pilferage, the State Government has gone in for a tie-up with the Bangalore-based Comat Technology to overhaul the functioning of the PDS. The company's target is to issue laminated ration cards to 1.24 crore families in the State. Bar code is like a smart card, which stores information regarding the head of each family and also his/her thumb impression.

Photos of all family members are printed on the card. The biometric system was introduced to check bogus ration cards that are rampant across the State. The cards will have details such as ration shop number, residential address of the family, district and taluk offices.

Five-year project

Under the five-year project, the department has already spent Rs. 50 crore for executing the project and to issue biometric ration cards. Now, it has proposed to set up point-of-sale (POS) devices in all fair price shops in the State by inviting global tenders.

POS would be linked to electronic weighing machines, which would eliminate inaccuracy in weighing foodgrains such as rice, wheat and sugar by owners of ration shops.

“Under the system, the ration can be issued in instalments and the closing balance is automatically available,” the official said. The effort was to make sure that foodgrains reach the people without pilferage and technology would help in effective monitoring of the movement of goods. “And at the click of the mouse, we will be able to access information from all centres,” an official said.

“The scheme is designed to ensure that the right beneficiary gets the desired amount of foodgrains and other benefits,” he said.

The biometric bar-coded ration cards can be used for various purposes. The Health Department has been using it for identifying beneficiaries under the Vajpayee ArogyaSri Yojana in Gulbarga division to provide free medical treatment, including surgery, to below poverty line families.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/12/stories/2010081262780800.htm)

Passport Seva Project a success, says minister
(http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=44430)
E-governance can help improve accountability: Narayana Murthy (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/consultancy-/-audit/E-governance-can-help-improve-accountability-Narayana-Murthy/articleshow/6119163.cms)

Aug 14: All advocates’ associations in the state will soon have an ‘e-library’ to assist lawyers in preparing their cases, law minister Suresh Kumar announced on Saturday.

The e-library will give the lawyers access to judgments of high courts and the Supreme Court in addition to state and Central legislations. The minister said an advocate’s academy on the lines of the judicial academy was also on the cards to train young advocates in various aspects of the law.

“At present, advocates, especially the young and inexperienced, find it difficult to prepare their cases, as searching for books and citations in the library is a tedious and time consuming process. An e-library will be of enormous help as the lawyers will be able to get the printouts they need from various books without causing them any damage ”, says president of the Advocates Association of Bengaluru, K.N. Puttegowda. The high court is of late offering updates through smses on mobile phones on the status of cases filed before it and the circuit benches, on the status of the applications iled for certified copies of orders and judgments and of cases being heard in a court hall, for the benefit of the litigants.

It has also installed four information kiosks at the principal bench in Bengaluru and two each at the circuit benches in Dharwad and Gulbarga to provide information to the advocates and the litigants on the cause list, status of cases and of applications for certified copies of orders, and about judicial deposits.

DC Correspondent (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/bengaluru/e-library-lawyers-soon-015)

MANGALORE: In a perfect Independence Day gift to citizens, the DK district administration has extended the facility of receiving online applications for requests of land conversion from people in 10 gram panchayats (GPs) in Mangalore and Bantwal taluks. The GPs include Haleyangadi, Kinnigoli, Bajpe, Kandavara, Kotekaru in Mangalore taluk, and Kurnadu, Vittla, Kavalamudnuru, Mani, and Kukkipadi in Bantwal taluk.

Delivering the Independence Day address after unfurling the Tricolour and inspecting a parade here on Sunday, district in-charge minister J Krishna Palemar said hitherto people of the two taluks had to submit their online application for conversion of land at the respective taluk offices. This facility will now be accessible and available to people in the above mentioned 10 gram panchayats from August 23, Palemar added.

Likewise, the revenue department is according top priority to applications received in respect of land survey in connection with `11 E sketches' applied for by property owners with respect to their immovable property, Palemar said. The revenue department has achieved more than 75% progress in this regard, he said, adding the appointment of 24 surveyors has also facilitated the department to expedite land survey process.

Likewise, the process of creating urban property records through the urban property ownership records project has been taken up in 32 villages in MCC limits under a public-private partnership mode. The city survey project will end up measuring neartly two lakh properties in these villages, he said, adding that owners of the properties would then be issued property cards instead of pahanis given to them earlier.

The government would release additional special grants of Rs 100 crore to MCC during the current fiscal year. This would be used to concrete the inner city roads, take up repairs and maintenance of asphalted roads and for the construction of modern bus stations for convenience of commuting passengers. The construction of a second vented dam at Thumbay would ensure 24x7 water supply to the city, he noted.

The various amendments incorporated in to the zoning regulations in the master plan of the city prepared by Mangalore Urban Development Authority will provide relief to small site holders, he said, adding that various concessions from penal fee have been extended to sites ranging from three to 12 cents.

At the impressive parade held on this occasion, the KSRP commando force and road safety patrol students of St Theresa School made their maiden appearance.

The St Theresa School headed by Nishmitha was declared the best march-past unit, while the Guides troupe headed by Shraddha received the runners-up trophy. The minister released a booklet brought out by the department of food and civil supplies on the occasion.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/10-more-GPs-can-apply-online-for-land-conversions/articleshow/6316218.cms)

Mangalore Central Excise Web site (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/08/06/stories/2010080652051900.htm)
India Bhoomi Foundation of Geoinformatics Selected SuperGIS Desktop (http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/dailynews/2010/aug/16/news1.html)
CCTV cameras installed in vital areas of Bijapur (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/17/stories/2010081754030300.htm)

many departments of the state govt dont even have a website or their Domain has expired :ohno: :bash: :bash:

http://parisara.kar.nic.in/lda.htm

View Lake Development Authority Website (http://lakeauthority.com/)

Sure would like to view it , but where is it ??? :bash:

* Initially, the city will have two service centres

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/20/images/2010082051210301.jpg
FOR CITIZENS:Thimmappa (right), Municipal Commissioner; G. Somashekar Reddy, MLA and KMF Chairman; G. Janardhan Reddy (extreme left),

BELLARY: Bellary became the ninth city in the State to have integrated citizen service centres with the launch of BellaryOne on Thursday.

To start with, Bellary will have two service centres — one at the City Corporation office complex and the other at the Bellary Urban Development Authority office complex — where people could remit bills pertaining to electricity, telephone and cellphones of certain service providers, water bills and property taxes and buy passport applications. These centres would function between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. throughout the year.

The services are being provided by the Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services, e-Governance Department on a public-private partnership model.

Speaking after inaugurating the centre, G. Janardhan Reddy, Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure Development, called upon the people to make use of the facilities and services provided.

“Depending upon the need, more such centres will be opened with round-the-clock services,” he said and instructed the Municipal Commissioner to organise public meetings about the services being made available to the public.

M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, e-Governance, said that the services were launched for the first time in 2005 in Bangalore and after five years, there were 70 centres in different localities working round-the-clock.

Hubli-Dharwad, Shimoga, Mysore, Mangalore, Tumkur, Davangere and Gulbarga are the other cities where this facility was available.

“From today, people can remit bills pertaining to electricity, telephone bills of BSNL, Airtel and Vodafone, and buy passport applications. In two days, services for remitting water bills and property taxes will be added. By August 31, we want to provide at least 10 services at these Bellary One centres,” Mr. Vidyashankar said.

G. Somashekar Reddy, MLA and Chairman, Karnataka Milk Federation, who presided over the function, said that the development of the city was going on and simultaneously special services such as Bellary One was being provided. He wanted the people to take advantage of it.

N. Thippanna, MLC, T.H. Suresh Babu, MLA, B. Shivappa, Deputy Commissioner, and M.N. Nagaraj, Superintendent of Police, were present.

Thimmappa, Municipal Commissioner, welcomed the gathering. D.S. Ravindran, CEO, e-Governance, proposed a vote of thanks.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/20/stories/2010082051210300.htm)

Here’s how Karnataka health minister Sriramulu keeps his ministry in good health (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_here-s-how-karnataka-health-minister-sriramulu-keeps-his-ministry-in-good-health_1425036)
Praja is working on an Open Data project with the Government of Karnataka to make government data available to the public online (http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/08/17/india-monitoring-traffic-violations-on-facebook/)
GPS technology to avert rail accident (http://udayavani.com/news/6405L14-GPS-technology-to-avert-rail-accident.html)

^^ Most unplanned part of any project is maintenance. Do they allocate money for maintenance lifecycle of road, dam or any other project?

HUBLI: Ramalinga Gowda, commissioner of Intelligence wing of commercial tax department (Bangalore), has called upon the traders to utilize the e-filing system introduced in the department to pay their commercial tax.

He was speaking at a seminar and demonstration programme on e-filing system jointly organized by Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the department of commercial taxes, here recently.

Gowda said traders can furnish the information sought by the department within five minutes and settle their tax quickly by using the system. After filing the form, they would get a reference number on paying tax. They will also get the print-out of the duty-filed form, he added.

To help the traders settle their commercial tax through online system, the system has been set up at State Bank of India, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore and Syndicate Bank.

Joint commissioner M D Nayak said special officers have been appointed to help the traders. "About 95% of traders have been given user code and password for the purpose," he added.

Assistant commissioner Hudalur demonstrated on how to make use of e-filing system. He asked the traders to send in their problems, if any, directly to the department. Over 300 traders attended the programme.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Traders-asked-to-use-e-filing-system/articleshow/6388952.cms#ixzz0xJ1Dzn00)

http://164.100.80.121/vat1/

BANGALORE: Do you fret and fume before filing an application under the Right to Information? Help is on the way. Starting October 1, you might just be able to pick up the phone to demand information.

The department of egovernance is planning to start a 40seater call center which will take calls from RTI applicants and forward the application on their behalf.

The service, a first of its kind initiative by the state government, will be available throughout Karnataka. Bihar is the only state in the country that allows RTI applications via telephone.

The egovernance department has floated a request for proposal (RFP) seeking interest from companies that provide such services. According to MN Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, department of egovernance, the department has plans to take the project live on October 1. "The October 1 deadline is achievable because call center infrastructure is plenty in Bangalore and does not take long to set up. Only the process needs to be finalized," he added. Calls to RTI line will be charged. The rates, however, have not been fixed. "Rates will be finalized in consultation with the RTI commission," he said.

"The services will eliminate the need to shuttle between various offices in search of the Public Information Officer. It will make the whole process simpler and more transparent," he said. RTI activists, however, are not that hopeful.

State Information Commissioner H N Krishna says that there could be a few teething problems. "Processing centers at district levels might not be technologically uptodate. Fee payment could be another problem."

Ravindra Nath Guru, Convenor, Karnataka RTI Act Katte agrees. "Most of the officials don't even have an email address. Is it feasible? Is Karnataka even ready for it?"

"The Jankaari RTI call centers launched in Bihar were a failure. The BBMP call center which was opened to take in complaints of building byelaw violations also failed. They had to shut shop within seven months of opening," said Guru.

EB (http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/take-the-ring-route-for-filing-rti-queries/200576.html)

^^

Force officials to open e-mail box by making it compulsory to send their attendance through e-mail daily?

Better to develop a mail server that can check whether officials have opened all their e-mails for marking attendance?

Any other suggestion?

MANGALORE: Dakshina Kannada District in Karnataka on Monday became the first district in the state to install Global Positioning System (GPS) for trucks transporting sand.

The GPS and identification stickers on the left hand side windshield of these vehicles is part of the process of regulating the sand trade, especially to Kerala, where there is a ban on mining sand.

The district administration had warned that permission for sand transportation will be given only to those lorries fitted with GPS.

On Tuesday, 165 lorries fitted with GPS were launched by Deputy Commissioner Ponnuraj.

DC said the task force on sand set up as per a government order had authorised to explore all possibilities to curb prevalent illegalities in this business. There will be no bar on goods’ transport lorries, not fitted with GPS, to carry any other commodity except sand, he said.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/GPS-for-trucks-transporting-sand-installed/articleshow/6427362.cms#ixzz0xab0E1mn)

Wonder whether this system is foolproof against illegal transportation. If at all proved useful can be implemented in ore transporting trucks also.

^^

Force officials to open e-mail box by making it compulsory to send their attendance through e-mail daily?

E mail and Biometric attendance else they will sit at home and send their attendance.

http://www.deccanherald.com/images/editor_images/August%202010/August%2027%202010/city-tech-savvy-school.jpg

Uttarahalli Composite Government School has emerged as a model school for rest of the government schools in Bangalore to emulate.

This school in a nondescript locality on the extreme South of Bangalore City has become the first in Karnataka to have a Smart Classroom, with a computerised classroom. Set up by Dell in association with Learning Links Foundation, an NGO, under the Dell Youth Connect Programme, this school can be envy of even private schools in the state.

Launching the Smart Class, the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri asked the officials of his department to replicate this model across Bangalore and children studying in government schools should not engrossed with an inferiority complex in comparision with the private schools.

Hailing the local MLA M Krishnappa for the initiative taken by him to rope in corporate giants like Dell into enhancing the quality of education in this government school, Kageri said he would certainly like to have a government English medium school and a PU College in the vicinity.

The Smart Class, an initiative of Dell under its Dell Youth Connect programme, aims at bridging the digital divide in the society, said Sameer Garde, the Country Manager of the Dell India and President of APJ Services. The SCIMA Digital Enhancement Programme (Science Math and Digital Literacy Enhancement Programme) aims to generate interest and enthusiasm among the secondary school students towards Science and Math. It also empowers them to use technology tools to research, analyse, collaborate and communicate effectively.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/91753/tech-savvy-govt-school-has.html)

Why the minister is interested in replicating this model across Bangalore only? Isn't he minister for whole of Karnataka?

Such facilities should come across other regional centers of the state and the country to begin with and then everywhere.

^^ Agree. Also there is a question of whether mailbox should be accessable from anywhere or office only.

Bangalore, 26 Aug 2010: The Department of Food and Civil Supplies will invite tenders for introduction of bio-metric identification of the BPL card holders.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister R Ashok said on Thursday that the system will be in place in four to five months, and will ensure that no entitled family was denied their quota of food grains in fair price shops.

Speaking after inaugurating the rice mela and distribution of rice and wheat at subsidised price, in Bangalore, the minister said officers of the department had been working on introducing the system which would involve recording the thumb impressions of every member of the entitled family.

The family need not bring the card to purchase foodgrain. Registering their thumb impression would enough be enough for them to receive their quota. The minister said the bio-metric system would check duplication of names in the list of beneficiaries.

The shop keepers at fair price shops cannot deny the grains to any entitled family. If any family had not bought its quota of grains, the grains would go back to the godowns. The central office in Bangalore can track the stocks at all fair price shops any point of time, making the system foolproof.

Bellevision (http://www.bellevision.com/index.php?action=news_diggest&type=521)

Is this project linked to UIDAI project?

BELGAUM: Information Technology department secretary M N Vidyashankar said KarnatakaOne, a project to provide various services to citizens under one roof, has begun operations in nine cities of the state.

Speaking at the inaugural of the project here on Wednesday, he said the project has been initiated in Bangalore, Shimoga, Mysore, Gulbarga, Tumkur, Mangalore, Bellary, Davanagere, and Hubli-Dharwad. The department has plans to take the project to gram panchayat levels too, he added.

Services like paying electricity, water, telephone and cellphone bills, property tax, LIC premium, issuing birth and death certificates, railway ticket reservation, KSRTC and private bus booking, renewal of monthly bus pass, registration for new passport, LPG booking, movie ticket booking and other services are done at KarnatakaOne centres, he said, and added that people can make payments using cash, cheque, demand draft, credit or debit cards.

In Belgaum, four centres have been opened: opposite ESI Hospital in Ashok Nagar, old corporation office building at Risaldar Galli, BUDA shopping complex at TV centre, and Goaves. People can now only pay electricity and cellphone bills between 8am to 8pm. Other services will soon be offered.


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Karnataka-One-centres-open-in-Belgaum/articleshow/6447282.cms

In MangaloreOne currently one can pay only electricity bills. Akash, whether other bills can be paid in MysoreOne?

x-post.
Mobile lab to give cyber crime unit a razor’s edge

In a first-of-itskind initiative, the Criminal Investigation Department is all set to roll out its mobile cyber crime forensic laboratory to enable spot analysis.
The unit, awaiting some finishing touches, could start functioning in the coming days. CID DGP D V Guruprasad said this unit will make a preliminary analysis of the crime scene. Though Delhi cyber crime unit had proposed setting up of such a unit, Karnataka will be the first to get it on the road.
As per the amended IT Act, cyber crime victims can lodge a complaint in the nearest police station. However, it’s the CID cyber crime police station which has the technical expertise.

“We are training all officers above the inspector level. However, only preliminary training has been completed and they need more training to handle cyber crime evidence. The mobile unit comes in handy in such cases to complete preliminary analysis,’’ said CID DIG Malini Krishnamurthy.

Cyber Crime SP Manish Karvekar said when a cyber crime is reported, local police face problems of transportation, power and logistics. ‘‘A lot of time goes in bringing evidence for analysis to the CID. Now, the van can travel to any part of the state and technical experts can start the inquiry,” he said.

SOLVING CRIME, ON THE MOVE

It’s fitted with several gadgets needed for data forensic analysis. It has a disk imager and forensic tool kits, along with laptops, write blockers and imaging equipment. The unit has three types of power back-up — UPS, generator and tubular battery (vehicle battery). The additional back-up comes in the form of laptops.

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/getimage.dll?path=TOIBG/2010/08/23/2/Img/Pc0020900.jpg

“Experts can make mirror images of the evidence, can analyze multiple hard disks or even a server. We can also analyze the data on mobiles or SIM cards. If the investigating officer has any question, we can give all the details, including IP address of the computer used in a crime, etc.,’’ said cyber crime inspector Sharath T.

:okay:
http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=2&sectid=edid=&edlabel=TOIBG&mydateHid=23-08-2010&pubname=Times+of+India+-+Bangalore&edname=&articleid=Ar00202&publabel=TOI

^^ They are so behind times - new age crooks use all sorts of encryption standards to protect their network or hard disc or cell phone, in fact some of them use off-site servers and work on them remotely, these servers are generally located in countries where they have laws protecting citizens privacy and integrity so no govt however powerful will be able to find out who did what.

TNN, Sep 3, 2010, 12.42am IST
Article

BANGALORE: Come October 4, you can pay the road tax through e-payment and grab a discount for it.

The transport department has decided to go the e-way to directly interact with the citizens and avoid touts. "People can pay the road tax through e-payment instead of waiting in long queues. We are planning to accommodate such people even in BangaloreOne. All efforts are made to ensure that huge crowds are not there at the transport office," transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao said.

Speaking at an interactive meeting organized by the Federation of Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) on Thursday, he said vehicle owners will be alerted through e-mails or phone calls to ensure that emission testing is done promptly every six months. "Less than 20% of vehicles go for emission testing every six months. Hence, the details of vehicle owners like phone numbers and e-mail id would be collected. All the 500 emission-testing centres would be electronically linked,'' he added.

Stating that the transport department faced staff shortage, he said: "In 1990, for 14.6 lakh vehicles in the state, the department had a staff of 2,500. But now, the state has 90 lakh vehicles with only 1,900 people and we have only 56 motor vehicle inspectors. However, the requirement is 200 inspectors."

At least 800 vehicles are registered and 1,200 driving licences issued every day in Bangalore.

He said road accidents were increasing because of poor quality work by the civil engineering department. At least 9,500 people die and 45,000 are grievously injured every year in the state, he said.

S Ejaz Ahmed Sait, chairman, civic affairs committee, FKCCI, observed that road accidents were increasing, thanks to BMTC vehicles. They overspeed, jump traffic lanes and signal lights apart from stopping in the middle of the road, he said.

Tougher driving test

To make driving test tougher, the transport department is planning to introduce electronic driving track, which would include six components. Bhaskar Rao said the track would be inaugurated in Electronic City and Yelahanka by mid-September.

Source (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/You-can-pay-road-tax-online/articleshow/6482398.cms)

http://www.ndtv.com/news/hightechtrack295.jpg

Bangalore: A man in uniform shouts in Kannada, "fail maadi!"

The recipient of the news looks dejected. He knows he accelerated too heavily when he was trying to make his way up a slope. He was hoping nobody had noticed the car rolling back. Sensors beeped his mistakes out loud and clear. Big fat "F".

Set up on 1.2 acres, off the Mysore Road, this is the country's first automated track in Bangalore. It's currently in pilot project mode. Drivers who want licenses are randomly selected for it. A computer monitors and times the entire test, including reversing, kerb parking, and uphill driving. Rs. 50 and six minutes later, the test is complete. Drivers are then taken onto a regular street -the current laws don't allow for that part to be done away with.

23-year-old Sameer, a car mechanic, aced the automated track test. That's cause for celebration. As also the fact that he didn't have to bribe anyone to get his license. ''My friends too had come this morning to take the test. But they saw this slope and ran away!'' he says.

Officials say the digital test is a bonus for them too. ''No madam, no chance for bribery. The computer captures and shows if a driver drove well or not. There is no room for argument because the examiner is a machine, not a man,'' says K P Gangadhar Acharya, Motor Vehicle Inspector

So far, about twenty of these automated track tests are conducted every day. "No politician can push their candidate. The test is so transparent,'' says Bhaskar Rao, Transport Commissioner of Karnataka.

NDTV (http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bangalore-s-new-hi-tech-driving-test-49130)

For video
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/bangalore-s-new-hi-tech-driving-test-49130

Raviprasad Kamila

* Pilot project being tried in Kurnadu gram panchayat
* GPS-enabled camera takes photographs of public assets
* Documentation in each gram panchayat may cost Rs. 40,000

— PHOTO: RAVIPRASAD KAMILA
http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/03/images/2010090359310301.jpg
PILOT PROJECT:Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat P. Shivashankar showing an anganwadi centre in the digitalised map of Kurnadu gram panchayat.

MANGALORE: The Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat plans to digitally document the public assets under each gram panchayat using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.

Under this project, a GPS-enabled camera will take photographs of public assets such as schools and hospitals. Their latitudinal and longitudinal location are recorded and mapped.

First step

As a first step, Kurnadu gram panchayat in Bantwal taluk has been chosen for the purpose on a pilot basis, P. Shivashankar, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the zilla panchayat, told The Hindu.

In Kurnadu, public assets such as schools, anganwadi centres, primary health centres, water supply projects, post offices and the like have been documented.

This will help eliminate improper planning of development projects. For example, if there is a demand for opening a school under Kurnadu gram panchayat, the CEO can check the details and locations of existing schools.

Specific details

Showing the map of Kurnadu gram panchayat, Mr. Shivashankar said that initially it might appear like a common map. But by clicking on specific icons, details of public assets and their photographs could be obtained. “The GPS-enabled camera also records the distance between the district headquarters and the gram panchayat office,” he said.

At present, the project will not document human habitats (houses) in each gram panchayat. That would be a voluminous and time-consuming task, he said. The cost of documenting public assets in each of the 203 gram panchayats in the district is estimated at Rs. 40,000. The zilla panchayat is working out details on cost-sharing and whether the work should be outsourced or not, he said.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/03/stories/2010090359310300.htm)

ಭಟ್ಕಳ: ಇ-ಸ್ಟಾಂಪಿಂಗ್* ಸೇವಾ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಆರಂಭ (http://www.udayavani.com/news/13272L15-%E0%B2%87-%E0%B2%B8-%E0%B2%9F--%E0%B2%AA--%E0%B2%97---%E0%B2%B8-%E0%B2%B5--%E0%B2%95--%E0%B2%A6-%E0%B2%B0-%E0%B2%86%E0%B2%B0-%E0%B2%AD.html)
CCTVs to stop illegal transport of iron ore in Karnataka (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_cctvs-to-stop-illegal-transport-of-iron-ore-in-karnataka_1431870)

KARWAR: The fisheries department will provide the bio-metric smart cards to fishermen of Uttara Kannada district. Details of the fishermen are being collected by the department according to S C Hemantaraju, deputy director of fisheries department.

"A total of 11,250 applications were collected by the department from different taluks of Uttara Kannada district," he said. Hemantaraju added that fishermen can procure the application from the office of assistant director of fisheries department in respective taluks and submit the filled forms to the department.

"Later, BEL representatives will visit the fishermen and take their photographs to include it in the bio-metric smart cards," he said. The card will have details and fingerprints of fishermen. The BEL team is expected to visit the district by next month, said Hemantaraju.

Details of fishing boats are also collected by the department, only 3,293 applications for boat registration were received by the department, he said. Till now the port department was doing this work. Now the work of boat registration is entrusted to the fisheries department and it will be done free of cost. "It is estimated that about 6,000 boats are operating in the coastal Karnataka," Hemantaraju said.

He requested the fishermen to register their boats with the department.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Smart-cards-likely-for-fishermen/articleshow/6481987.cms)

* New software helps keep a tab on all users
* Police to promote it in all cyber cafés in Mangalore

MANGALORE: The police hosted a workshop for cyber café owners here on Monday. Nearly 200 cyber café owner participated in it. A free cyber café security software was launched by Ideacts Innovations Ltd on the occasion.

The objective of the workshop was to ensure cyber security and better data management at cyber cafés. “Cyber cafés are sought after by all sorts of anti-social elements such as fraudsters, data thieves and terrorists. Given the growth of such unlawful activities over the last few years, it has become absolutely essential for cyber cafés to have a foolproof system to monitor their customers,” said Krishna Swamy, retail head of Ideacts Innovations.

Mr. Swamy said that the software “CLINK Cyber Café Manager” keeps accounts of every printout taken from any computer in the café. It has a user data storage system to capture and store the photographs of every customer.

As per the provisions of the IT Act, café owners have to maintain details of each customer, Mr. Swamy said and added that the new software simplified the procedure and made it more effective. Cyber cafés account for approximately 47 per cent of the access points for internet usage in the country and hence their digital management and security is critical. “Café owners do not have practical solutions for café management and visitor information storage,” Mr. Swamy said.

Mangalore City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said that until now, most cyber cafes were maintaining visitor data in physical registers.

Terming it an inefficient information management, he said it was difficult to retrieve the data in that method.

Stressing that cyber cafes were used by anti-social elements, Mr. Singh welcomed the fact that the software was free of cost. “We are happy to associate ourselves with the company and encourage the use of this software in all cyber cafés here,” he said.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/07/stories/2010090760040300.htm)

Gol Gumbaz gets seven CCTVs (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/07/stories/2010090758180300.htm)

Anisha Sheth

* Long queues at KSRTC bus-stands are disappearing
* Awatar system of KSRTC has become successful
* Air travellers also seem to prefer online booking

MANGALORE: Commercial Internet services like ticket booking and banking appear to be popular among the people in Mangalore.

One of the biggest success stories is the booking of tickets through ‘Awatar' of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. Divisional Transport Officer of Mangalore division Jaishant Kumar described it as “a 100 per cent success”.

The ‘Anywhere, Anytime Advanced Reservation' or ‘Awatar' service is immensely popular. Although the online booking service was launched in 2002, it was only in 2006 that Awatar was introduced. The KSRTC has set up counters across the State making it easy for the people to book their tickets. “There are many counters in rural places. Now that online booking is available, there is no need for people to go to bus-stands for booking tickets. Queues are almost eliminated,” Mr. Kumar said. Pointing to the long queues outside his office, Enquiry and Reservation Supervisor at Mangalore Central Railway Station N. Mohan said, “It has not made much of a difference to railway booking.” However, the number of lines has not decreased since he was posted here about three-and-a-half years ago.

The popularity of online booking of air tickets is evident by the beating that travel agents have taken since e-ticketing was introduced early this year.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/08/stories/2010090860800300.htm)

M.T. Shiva Kumar and K.C. Deepika

* ‘CCTVs in the hospital do not cover all entry and exit points'
* 12 babies have been stolen from Vani Vilas in 10 years
* Hospital approaches Home Guards for providing security

BANGALORE: Waking up to the incident where a baby was stolen from Vani Vilas Hospital, hospital authorities have swung into action introducing new security measures. For the first time in the State, electronic article surveillance system similar to the one used in shopping malls will be used in the hospital.

The technology will be used in the form of bands which will be tied to the babies' wrists or legs. In case a child is taken out, the theft detector in the door frame will beep.

The technology is presently used in a few government and private hospitals in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/08/stories/2010090861660400.htm)

Anil Kumar Sastry

http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/10/images/2010091062960801.jpg
System overloaded as number of hits increases four-fold

BANGALORE: Hundreds of commuters planning to travel during the long weekend were disappointed as the KSRTC tickets online portal remained disabled, particularly during day time.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) offers online ticket booking through its Any Where Any Time Advance Reservation (AWATAR) facility on its website www.ksrtc.in.

Many registered users told The Hindu that they could not log in to the website let alone book tickets since Monday. “I planned my journey to Belgaum at the last minute for September 9 due to family compulsions and wanted to book tickets online for paucity of time. However, I could not get the ticket,” lamented N. Sukhesh, a private firm employee.

Overloaded

KSRTC officials, however, said the problem was due to overloading on the system. While the server could take up to 1,000 simultaneous hits, the numbers exceed 4,000, the officials said. With about 12 lakh registered customers, AWATAR records more than 50,000 hits a day during festival seasons.

“We temporarily disable individual online bookings and give priority to booking counters — KSRTC as well as franchisees,” said Director (Operations) K.A. Rajkumar. The priority is the common man who queues up at the counter, he said. Online bookings are, however, enabled after the peak hour, he added. There are 513 booking counters across South India, including about 80 operated by KSRTC.

Chief Systems Manager Ramamurthy said even though individual booking was temporarily disabled, mobile booking was always available. Customers have to send ‘KSRTC' to 56767 to register with ‘ngpay,' the service provider and download the application. At no point of time, booking tickets at counters had faced any problem, he added.

Capacity expansion

Meanwhile, KSRTC Managing Director Gaurav Gupta told The Hindu, “We are aware of the situation where the demand is growing every day. Ever since AWATAR was introduced and individual interface was given, the system is becoming popular for the flexibility it offers while booking the tickets.”

The corporation, therefore, has planned to expand the capacity of the server to accommodate at least 10 times more the number of hits it presently caters to, Mr. Gupta said.

After the upgradation, expected to take a couple of months, the system can allow more than 5,000 hits simultaneously.

As an intermediate measure, more space would be created by stopping the internal work on the website; deleting the report files and load adjustment, he added.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/10/stories/2010091062960800.htm)

'Bhoomi' Land records: Virajpet takes top spot in State (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/11/stories/2010091159950300.htm)

Has CCTV changed district hospital for better? (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/95989/has-cctv-changed-district-hospital.html)

ased on this, the Superintendent of the hospital can monitor the activities of all the four units seated at his chamber and can take action upon erring doctors and para medical staff. Though the CCTV was installed one month ago, not even one complaint was reported from the public, as per the records and no action has been initiated against anyone as there were no complaints.

However, speaking to Deccan Herald, Superintendent of the Hospital Dr Ramalingegowda told that this CCTVs would be installed in other units too, staff and duty doctors will be forced to be on their toes as a result of this.

* People can file land conversion applications online: Ponnuraj
* The facility will be extended to other panchayats in a phased manner
* Web page with files related to assorted subjects has been opened

— PHOTO: RAVIPRASAD KAMILA
http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/13/images/2010091361540301.jpg
NEW FACILITY:Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada S.A. Prabhakar Sharma looking at the files on the web page in Mangalore.

MANGALORE: The district administration will be introducing the facility of filing online applications for land conversion at 10 gram panchayat offices in the district within a fortnight, the Deputy Commissioner, V. Ponnuraj, told The Hindu.

The 10 GPs are Haleyangady, Kinnigoli, Bajpe, Kandavara and Kotekar in Mangalore taluk and Kurnadu, Vitla, Kavalamudur, Mani and Kukkipady in Bantwal taluk.

The panchayat development officers and secretaries of 10 panchayats have been given training in this regard. As of now, people have to first approach respective taluk offices and later his office for land conversion at least five to six times, he said.

Advantage

In the changed scenario, once an applicant files an on-line application he or she need not visit the taluk office and Deputy Commissioner's office. While filing online application, the applicant will have to submit relevant documents at respective gram panchayats.

Arrangements will be made to enable people pay the fixed fee for land conversion at local banks in the limits of respective GPs.

Acknowledgement

Additional Deputy Commissioner S. A. Prabhakar Sharma said that such applicants will be given a computer-generated receipt. After paying the fee at the designated bank branches, acknowledgment will have to be submitted at respective panchayat offices which will in turn send them to the Deputy Commissioner's office. The land conversion grant certificates will be issued at respective panchayats.

Later, the facility will be extended to other panchayats in a phased manner

For the time being, it will be restricted to only land conversion service, he said.

Tracking of files

Meanwhile, the Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner has taken a step forward in making people use the Internet and access files in his office.

By logging on to www.dk.nic.in to do that, people can track the movement of files and see the remarks made on them.

All files, except confidential ones, developed during 2010-11have been posted on the public domain. Some files of 2009-10 have also been uploaded, he said.

The web page has the search option where a file number, name of the place or subject can be typed and access the requisite file. Option has been provided to search files on the basis of taluks and villages. With this, there will no need for people to visit the Deputy Commissioner's office from far off only to know the status of files, Mr. Ponnuraj said. “Our people are not net-savvy. Although this facility has been created, many people still visit our office to enquire about files. We inform them about the facility and as them to make best use of it,” said a staff member at his office.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/13/stories/2010091361540300.htm)

x-post.


Railway division gets high-tech distinction

BANGALORE: Railway Bangalore Division has completely computerised its track-monitoring system, becoming the first division to do so in South-Western Railways and the fourth division in the country.

Disclosing this to Express, Divisional Senior Engineer (Coordination), V Haribabu, said now that the computerisation was over, they could monitor any activity happening around 1,000 km of the railway tracks belonging to Bangalore division.

“At the time of derailment or any other crisis, we were unable to take any decisions unless we went to the spot and assessed various things, including visibility and availability of manpower. Now everything can be known through the net and we can take decisions on the spot,” he said.

He added that with computerisation, employees could not skip work after marking attendance. Elaborating, he said the system enabled the authorities to see how many people were working.

This way, they have done away with 15 registers. Also, with a bit of calculation, the authorities can asses how much work can be done by each individual and ensure that it is done.

As there are many vacancies in the department, computerisation will enable the authorities to move the surplus manpower from one place to another as per the need. Even the stores have been computerised. This enables tracking the actual stock position of the accessories and the place where they are.

“Now it will not be easy to pass the blame on someone else whenever something goes wrong as everything and [all the] actions of all the employees in the division, including the track inspectors, artisans, gangmen and officers, are documented,” Haribabu said

The other three division that are completely computerised are Agra, Secunderabad and Salem.

Source (http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/railway-division-gets-high-tech-distinction/206592.html)

The Food and Civil Supplies Department will soon host all ration cards on a website, which can be accessed by all. The website will avoid beneficiaries carrying the cards to avail benefits of various welfare schemes.

Transport minister R Ashok on Wednesday said the website would be launched in a week’s time. This would also help identify bogus cards as well. The minister said the bio-metric identification of BPL card beneficiaries would be in place in a few days. The system would help weed out about 20 lakh bogus cards. In addition the beneficiaries would get their share of food grains without fail.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/96879/web-weed-fake-ration-cards.html)

May not be government but private initiative.

* Application delivery and acceleration solution improves customer response time for healthcare IT service provider

Array Networks Inc., a global leader in secure application delivery, today announced that eClinicalWorks®, a market leader in ambulatory clinical systems, is now using Array Networks' AppVelocity (APV) server load balancer and application delivery controller to support its medical record and management solutions for health care providers. eClinicalWorks' customers now benefit from increased productivity with a boost in customer response time for clinical tasks while providing secure, reliable 24x7 access for health care providers.

eClinicalWorks selected the Array APV platform to ensure a dependable solution for its cloud hosted application infrastructure. Customers are benefitting from an enhancement in medical practice productivity while reducing costs and keeping confidential patient records secure. Physicians, health centers and hospitals who are eClinicalWorks' customers use the solution to manage patient records and maximize healthcare quality with the registry reporting and clinical support features. This cloud hosted solution also enables physicians and other medical personnel to effectively access patient records anywhere to communicate with referring physicians or share consult notes and clinical data.

"We selected Array's solution because it enhances our software offering and allows our customers to increase productivity without sacrificing patient care or security," said Matthew Lewis, director of I.T. for eClinicalWorks.

Array Networks' APV application delivery controllers provide constant, SSL encrypted access to the eClinicalWorks software applications. The load balancing feature efficiently distributes web and application traffic for high availability and minimal down-time which results in reducing common query operations by 50% and decreasing server side connections by as much as fifteen times. In addition, the APV product line exceeds HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley Standards.

"We are pleased to work with a company that provides such an important service to the healthcare industry," said said Sunil Cherian, vice president of product marketing for Array Networks. "After thorough testing in Dell Computer's technology lab, the APV product received certification approval by eClinicalWorks - once again demonstrating our proven track record in enterprise secure application delivery."

indiaPRwire (http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/computer-networks/2010091762399.htm)

* Non-availability of studio to record programmes blamed
* The programme was launched in 2007 using world's first satellite dedicated to education
* Oficials attribute discontinuation of the programme to ‘some technical constraints'

Bangalore: The State Government's ambitious scheme of providing education through satellite connectivity — EduSat — has silently faded out of the government colleges in the State.

The programme was launched by the State government in August 2007 using world's first satellite dedicated exclusively to education launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Initially, the EduSat programme was made available in 102 Government First Grade Colleges with a plan to extend it to all the 356 colleges in a phased manner by providing satellite receiving equipment.

The programme's initial target was to bridge the gap between the urban and rural students in exposure to technological education and for this purpose, the lectures in various technical subjects, including computer science, biotechnology, by experts were to be aired live from Bangalore to the colleges.

However, instead of expansion, the EduSat programme has gone off the air and at present the programme is not available in any government college. Even during the period of its existence, the programme did not air the lessons on any major subjects except on computer fundamentals and functional English.

Admitting that the EduSat programme has gone off the air, the officials of the Collegiate Education Department point out that non-availability a permanent studio for recording and airing the programme was the main reason for discontinuation.

“A studio attached to another Government agency was being used to telecast the programme. But the studio was not available exclusively for the EduSat programme as many departments were using the studio,” pointed out an official adding that even the availability of the studio timing was not suitable for the colleges.

“Our students were keenly watching the EduSat classes as they had not much exposure to computer education. Even the initial classes on functional English were good for the students as many of them have studied in Kannada medium,” pointed out a principal of Government First Grade College situated in one of the northern district.

When contacted, N. Nagambika Devi, Commissioner, Department of Collegiate Education, attributed the discontinuation of the programme to “some technical constraints”.

“We are setting up a state-of-the-art studio exclusively for the EduSat programme in association with the Department of Technical Education. The work on establishment of studio is in the final stage and we are also in the process of preparing a comprehensive lessons in variety of subjects, said Dr. Nagambika Devi.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/20/stories/2010092060130600.htm)

e-governance @private level

Cashing in on the high tele density among students, six colleges in the State including three in the City are using mobile learning to improve their academic performance and bring about discipline.

Seshadripuram First Grade College, Seshadripuram PU College (both in Yelahanka), and Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women, Malleswaram have tied up with IPOMO Communications, a City-based firm that has launched various mobile-learning applications.

Enabled with a unique learning, assessment, and administration platform, IPOMO (Interactive Platform On Mobile) Campus, the m-learning application developed by the firm, is being used for handling internal assessment, marking attendance, profiling students and announcing results.

IPOMO Campus is being used on three fronts - attendance and internal marks, continuous internal assessment, and career guidance and counselling. Dr Prakash, Principal, Seshadripuram First Grade College, is relieved that the teachers in his college need no longer grapple with time constraints. “It’s a boon for us. Now, our teachers have enough time to concentrate on their lectures,” he told Deccan Herald.

Dr L Uma Devi, Principal, Seshadripuram PU College, agrees. “Students have become more serious. Now they think twice before bunking classes as an SMS about their absenteeism is sent to their parents,” she said. For this application, the company charges Rs 400 per student/per year. The cost is transferred to the students, she adds.

Delving on the experience at the Maharani Lakshmi Ammani College, Principal Anuradha says: “We launched the application in July. We have given our lecturers cellphones loaded with the relevant database. The new system is down-to-earth and has reduced our anxieties. Now, we don’t have to compile students’ records every month. Moreover, it has considerably improved their attendance in the class.”

Students, too, seem content. All they have to do is install the “IPOMO Teachmate” software on their mobile phones and they can take mock tests. Payal, PUC I student, Maharani Lakshmi Ammani College, says she is no longer scared of facing the CET after taking the mock test on her mobile phone.

“Now I can guess the format of questions to be asked in the exam,” she said. Payal, however, feels that the system has put a bit of stress on the students. “Obviously, we can’t bunk classes at will anymore,” she laughs.

Highlights

* IPOMO Campus used on three fronts - attendance, internal assessment and career guidance.
* The mobile learning application developed by Bangalore-based IPOMO Communications.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/97904/colleges-using-cellphone-learning-tool.html)

slightly off from e-governance
B’lore lads create disabled-friendly OS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/97891/blore-lads-create-disabled-friendly.html)

The Automated Driving Test Track (ADTT) at Mallathahalli, which according to the government officials will eliminate corruption in granting driving licences was inaugurated by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Thursday.

The ADTT has been developed by the Transport Department with assistance from the Union Ministry of Information Technology and the Department of E-Governance of Karnataka. Spread over an area of about five acres, it has cost an estimated Rs 1.7 crores.

Yeddyurappa said the City had grown manifold in the last decade and the number of vehicles had reached close to 34 lakh. Road accidents too were increasing, with about 800 people being killed and 6000 people wounded in road accidents last year.

It was to address the deficiencies in driving skills, that the Transport Department decided to construct an ADTT which is a replica of road conditions with an electronic system control testing the skill of candidate before granting them driving licence.

Yeddyurappa said public transportation will improve in the near future with the commissioning of Namma Metro. The government is also trying hard to bring Mono Rail to the city, the Chief Minister said.

Transport Department Secretary Shankar Linge Gowda told the media on the sidelines of the event that the ADTT constituted a major step towards disciplining the road traffic in the City.

The ADTT will eliminate malpractices in issuing driving licences, he said. There will be two more ADTTS in the City - one at Yelahanka and the other at Parappana Agrahara. The yelahanka ADTT will be for heavy vehicles.

Gowda said the government was contemplating to start such ADTTs at Mangalore, Mysore and Dharwad too.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/99131/automated-test-driving-track-opened.html)

Unlicensed software blamed for CAT glitches (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/24/stories/2010092460670400.htm)
Mysore City Zoo install CCTVs to protect animals (http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=25966)

Debiprasad Sarangi, Bangalore, Sep 24, DHNS:

* Will enable police to sharpen shooting skills without wasting ammunition

The police top brass have approved acquisition of hi-tech simulators for training members of the police force in skills such as use of fire arms and driving vehicles.

The simulators would enable police men to sharpen their shooting prowess without wasting bullets. The police drivers too would not need to to to driving schools to hone their skills, but can train on simulators as in many countries.

According to M K Srivastava, Additional Director General of Police (Telecommunication, Transport and Modernisation), the department will soon have firing simulators of various types like small arms simulator, interactive small arms training simulators and shooting training and analysis system simulators.

All four wheelers

The department will also be acquiring simulators for all four wheelers being used in the force. To be procured under the modernisation of police force scheme, the simulators will be in place within next two months, Srivastava said.

Advanced way

“This is the most scientific and advanced way to train our men in the use of various types of weapons, and it would enable our officers to know their faults while firing as the gadget will show the trajectory path, angle, latitude and longitude. And most importantly, we are going to save lots of rounds of bullets by using the system,” he added.

Initially, the department will purchase driving simulators for jeep and other four-wheelers and those simulators will be stationed at the Police Driving and Maintainance School in Yelhanka.

The simulators, each of them costing around Rs. 5.5 lakh will be purchased from 515 Army Base Work Shop.

Types of firing simulators

Currently, the state police force has 4-lane firing simulator system.(Where four personnel can practice shooting on one platform at a given time).

Small Arms Simulator

* A multi-weapon, multi-station software-based simulator
* Uses 3D graphics to give real time background
* Static and moving targets can be projected for training
* Adaptable to all sorts of arms currently being used in the force
* Costs around Rs 70 lakh.

Interactive small arms training simulator

* Has all the facilities like the earlier one
* Basically for personnel attached with KSRP Battalions
* Costs around Rs 25 lakh.

ShortX shooting training and analysis system

* For personnel attached to City Armed Reserve and District Armed Reserve.
* Costs around Rs 1.10 lakh

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/99390/state-cops-get-weapons-training.html)

Sharath S. Srivatsa

* State has saved Rs. 3,000 crore since inception of the model

BANGALORE: Karnataka has saved an estimated Rs. 3,000 crore after it switched to e-procurement in 2008 during which goods and services worth about Rs. 34,000 crore were procured by the State.

The savings through the online format has been possible owing to increased competition among bidders, resulting in procurement costs coming down. “E-procurement model has shown that there is a significant increase in competition ,” e-Governance Principal Secretary M.N. Vidyashankar told The Hindu.

There have been benefits in both forward auction (for the highest bid) and reverse auction (for lowest quote). “The model has worked well not only for procurement of goods, but also for services and award of works. The e-procurement has helped unlock a better value for goods and services procured by Government or in Government auctions,” he said.

A study in a few departments also revealed that the average bidder participation had increased. It went up from 2.8 per bid to 5.8 after e-procurement was introduced in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike while it rose from 2.2 to 9.0 in Bangalore Development Authority and from 1.6 to 4.2 in the Public Works Department.

In the same period, BBMP also saved about Rs. 300 crore on procurement of goods and services worth about Rs. 6,000 crore, while the BDA saved about Rs. 310 crore on a procurement of Rs. 3,000 crore. The PWD saved about Rs. 600 crore on a procurement of Rs. 5,000 crore.

The online bidding model, while attracting international bidders, also prevents formation of bidder cartels, which could push up procurement cost, Mr. Vidyashankar said.

All agencies by December

Meanwhile, the e-governance Department hopes to bring all government agencies under the e-procurement model by December 2010. The annual procurement of goods and services of the State is estimated to be around Rs. 40,000 crore.

From Sarva Shiksa Abhiyan of the Education Department, which was the first department to go for e-procurement model in 2008, the e-governance Department has so far covered 76 government agencies. “Each department has an e-procurement model since every department has its own way of procurement, and requirements are different,” Mr. Vidyashankar said.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/25/stories/2010092562810600.htm)

Mangalore: ‘Smart cards for rural people’ (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/99387/smart-cards-rural-people.html)
Using technology for learning (http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/23/stories/2010092350570200.htm)

* It has been developed by Goa State-owned GEL

Panaji: PRISMS software developed by Goa Electronics Ltd. (GEL), a State-owned company, for the Prisons Department of Goa has bagged the order for implementation from the Karnataka Prisons Department.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between Karnataka Government and the GEL in Bangalore, said an official of GEL here on Friday.

The Karnataka Government was represented by Kuchanna Srinivasan (Inspector-General of Prisons, Karnataka) and B.S. Borkar (MD, GEL) represented GEL.

Significantly, PRISMS software had bagged the National CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Award of Excellence for 2009.

The software was implemented in Goa Prisons in July 2008 and was inaugurated in February 2009.

PRISMS software is fully functional across all the prisons of Goa State and carries information regarding each prisoner in the jail. With the software in place, the office of Inspector-General of Prisons, Goa can view details of every prisoner admitted in any of the jails which include his parole, work wages, bail, and medical history.

Mahendra Khandeparkar, Chairman of GEL, said that they are continuously trying to improve the software.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/03/stories/2010100356760300.htm)

GULBARGA: The country's first fully-automated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and Distribution Control Centre (DCC) was inaugurated at the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (Gescom) by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa here on Monday. The state-of-the art SCADA and DCC facility would help in keeping track of the electricity consumption and supply position in all the 110 kV, 30 kV and 11 kV stations. This would enable the authorities to monitor the power supply situation.

The Chief Minister said it was a proud moment for Gescom to acquire such a facility and reiterated the commitment of the State Government to provide the latest facilities in the backward regions. The Chief Minister also laid the foundation stone for multi-storeyed buildings, which would have flats for slum-dwellers, at Gollarwadi. Mr. Yeddyurappa said the Government proposed to clear slums.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/05/stories/2010100557060300.htm)

MANGALORE: Accessing information on the internet at Mangalore University is now lightning fast with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited providing the university 1GB connection under the National Knowledge Network ( NKN) initiative. This is part of the move by the government of India that has embarked on National Mission in Education through ICT (NEMICT), whose main objective is to provide connectivity to learners, anywhere, anytime in India.

The university hitherto had a 20 MBPS connection and the same has since been upgraded to a 1GB connection. The total cost of this project is Rs 2 crore,

T C Shivashankara Murthy, vice-chancellor informed the academic council at its second general meeting held here on Wednesday. The HRD ministry has given a grant of Rs 1.35 crore, BSNL Rs 20 lakh and the university has to bear the rest of the cost, that is Rs 45 lakh, he said.

The Syndicate of the University has given the go ahead to be part of the National Knowledge Network project and the university has deposited Rs 5 lakh out of Rs 45 lakh to BSNL, the V-C said, adding that negotiations with the state-owned telecom company has yielded the university a concession in that they can pay this amount in a period of 10 years. This will prove to be major financial relief for the university, Murthy explained.

Mangalore University is the only second educational institution in the state after National Institute for Technology - Karnataka (NIT-K), Surathkal to get hooked on to information superhighway, V-C said. National Knowledge Network provides intranet connectivity across all universities through a high-speed network network, thus aiming at a concept called `University without walls'. Any learning resource available in the network is visible and accessible to any other user connected to the network, realizing the vision of a countrywide classroom.

Read more: Inching closer towards varsity without walls - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Inching-closer-towards-varsity-without-walls/articleshow/6782350.cms#ixzz4686I2hS7

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Inching-closer-towards-varsity-without-walls/articleshow/6782350.cms)

Karnataka’s e-governance efforts yield big results
Bangalore, October 30, DH News Service :

Karnataka’s flagship e-governance project, Bhoomi, which has digitised two crore land records, has reportedly reduced land disputes by half, State IT, BT and S&T Principal Secretary Ashok Kumar Manoli said on Thursday.

Speaking at the e-governance track of the Bangalore IT.Biz 2010 conference, Manoli said Bhoomi has set up centres at 1,002 locations to serve 27,000 villages.

Most land disputes pertain to extent of holdings, encroachment and title issues. Karnataka inherited the British-era Ryotwari system of maintaining land records, which lacked clear information about holdings. By digitising land records, the State had overcome this limitation, Manoli said.

Other projects

He also shared information on few other interesting e-governance projects in Karnataka. One million Bangaloreans use BangaloreOne to pay bills and access other services every month. The successful project, which has been replicated in five other cities, is set to expand to four more. E-procurement has processed 7,000 tenders worth Rs 30,000 crores. The payrolls of 5 lakh State government employees have been computerised.

The e-governance session focused on how different Indian states were trying to take the benefits of information technology to the people. IT officials from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat took part in the conference.
DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/109076/karnatakas-e-governance-efforts-yield.html)

BANGALORE: A delegation of Members of European Parliament was here on Wednesday seeking to explore possibilities of cooperation in e-governance and information technology.

“Investments in e-governance is growing in Europe and India and the delegation is looking at business opportunities, sharing of ideas and concepts,” chairman of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection Malcolm Harbour, who is leading a nine-member delegation, told reporters here on Wednesday. “We are facing similar challenges that the federal government is facing here. Public sector (e-governance) can play an innovative role in finding solutions in transport, green solutions, health and others, and there is no harm in joint development and innovation,” he added. Mr. Harbour also felt that manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, energy, transport and low-carbon technologies such as wind power technology offers immense growth potential between the European Union and India.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/04/stories/2010110463620800.htm)

http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/05/images/2010110561960401.jpg
For Transparency:Minister for Horticulture S.A. Ravindranath at the inauguration of the billing facility in Bangalore on Thursday.

Bangalore: To facilitate transparency in transactions while buying fruits and vegetables at HOPCOMS outlets, a computerised billing machine was inaugurated at Malleswaram in the city on Thursday.

Minister for Horticulture S.A. Ravindranath said that the machine avoids weight manipulations that may happen at the store level.

The project, assisted by the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana under the Central Government scheme, has introduced around 130 electronic machines in 100 HOPCOMS outlets.

‘Accuracy ensured'

“Accuracy of quantity is ensured as the machine is able to display even smaller measurements such as grams. The customer is charged by what is shown on the display,” said B.V. Chikkanna, president of HOPCOMS.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/05/stories/2010110561960400.htm)

* Tenders for installing GPS to be called soon
* Forty more Volvo buses to be introduced in five months
* Initially they will ply between Bangalore and Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai routes

Bangalore: Minister for Home and Transport R. Ashok on Saturday said that Global Positioning System (GPS) will be installed in 2,000 long distance buses run by Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation at a cost of Rs.10 crore and tenders for the same will be called shortly.

Launching five Airavat club class Volvo multi-axle intercity buses, Mr. Ashok said that the Centre would meet the expenses for the GPS. A control room in Bangalore will help detect whether the drivers stop buses at the designated stops and drive rashly.

Mr. Ashok said that 40 more Volvo buses would be introduced in about five months. Initially these buses will ply on Bangalore-Mumbai, Bangalore-Hyderabad and Bangalore-Chennai routes. The drivers had already been trained in this regard.

While, Bangalore-Chennai bus will go via Hosur and Vellore; Mumbai bound bus will go via Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Haveri, Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum, Kolhapur and Pune; Hyderabad headed Volvo will go via Anantapur, Gooty, Kurnool and Jedcharla. The bus fare for the three destinations – Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad – is Rs. 700, Rs. 1,300 and Rs. 850 respectively.

KSRTC, according to Mr. Ashok, was the first State transport corporation, to introduce Volvo intercity buses and had the largest Volvo fleet operator, numbering 349 in the country. These buses provide connectivity across south India to more than 50 destinations. These buses are equipped with superior technology, coupled with ergonomic design, unmatched style and air bus-like worldclass comforts, and offers a host of benefits to the commuters.

Mr. Ashok, also in-charge Minister of the Bangalore Urban District, said that the Sahitya Sammelan of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat slated to be launched on December 24 has been postponed to January in view of the zilla and taluk panchayat elections. Mr. Ashok, also honorary president of the celebrations committee said that he had discussed the matter with the parishat president Nallur Prasad.

Vice-Chairman of KSRTC and MLC Jaggesh, Transport Secretary M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda and Managing Director Gaurav Gupta attended the function

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/28/stories/2010112855051000.htm)

Mangalore: You will be fined transparently!

http://mangalorean.com/images/newstemp28/20101204gandget-5.jpghttp://mangalorean.com/images/newstemp28/20101204gandget-8.jpg

MANGALORE December 4, 2010: The Mangalore city police will wield a 'fine dispenser' unit from now on. A number of these gadgets have arrived in Mangalore which will be used for calculating the fine for every traffic offence and police can give a receipt and collect fines on the spot. These gadgets look like the ticket dispenser that the KSRTC bus conductors carry. The on board memory chip will facilitate the officer to get inputs from the police server and the 'going rates' for each offence committed by motorists.

For example for over-speeding it is Rs. 300 and for parking in no parking zone it is Rs. 100 and for rash driving it is 500 or for not able to produce documents and driving without licence will cost not less than 300. All these will now be very transparent, there is no need for the police officer to write the receipt manually, he will just have to press a button for getting a print out.

The police also cannot play games with the motorists. Once the receipt is generated it cannot be revoked by anybody as the server will record it in the end of the week the higher officials will calculate the amount collected.

A demonstration and training programme on these gadgets for the police officials was held in Police commissioner's office on Saturday. Training executives from the company and the police officials from Bangalore had imparted the training. In Bangalore every police vehicle on traffic duty has been equipped with this gadget according to the Additional Commissioner of Police (traffic) Mr. Praveen Sood.

Something of this sort must exist everywhere in our country.

Mangalorean.com (http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=210728)

Mysore, December 6, DHNS:

In a bid to make all its services hassle-free, MysoreOne centres across the city would cater all the five services of Mysore City Corporation (MCC), including issuing building license, khatha and others.

The people-friendly move will come into effect soon, if MCC has its way.

Disclosing this at a meeting chaired by the District Incharge Minister S A Ramdas to review the progress of various departments at ZP hall here on Monday, MCC Commissioner K S Raykar said the the corporation has approached the department of e-governance to add all those services in MysoreOne centres. “The principal secretary of e-governance has shown keen interest in this regard. The programme will come into effect as soon as the software is developed,” he said.

Raykar said the MCC has extended five major services like issuing birth and death certificates, trade license, building license, Katha’s for houses besides others. Except housing services, i.e building license and khatha, the civic body has delegates the powers to issue other certificates to nine zonal offices. The Assistant Commissioners of all zones are vested powers to issue these certificates. “Despite working hard to curb unnecessary harassment to public, we have observed that public are troubled and harassed while issuing building license. Extension of services to the MysoreOne will solve this problem if the applicant has all the correct documents and papers,” he said.

The Commissioner added that the MCC would also bring reforms in awarding tender for road cutting to avoid delay in asphaltation of damaged roads. A survey has brought to fore that about 8090 houses in city do not have UGD connection. These houses will be connected with UGD and the entire city would become 100 per cent UGD connected by the end of March next year,” he added.

On a suggestion from Minister to make the city free from flex and banners, the Commissioner said the MCC had already chalked out a programme to make the city free from all flex, including advertisements hoarding. “We have not issued any fresh license for advertisement boards in city. The agreement with the existing license holders would expire in March next year. The MCC is determined to see that Mysore became the first slum and hut free city in India”.

Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta, ZP CEO Sathyavathi, Police Commissioner Sunil Agarwal, Additional Superintendent of Police Venkatswamy and heads of various departments in the district attended the meeting.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/118611/mcc-strengthen-mysoreone-centres.html)

‘BillMail ID' will go online tomorrow

Special Correspondent
It will be a one-stop site to pay bills

An engineering student of NIT-K develops the site

Users can store all their bills for many years

MANGALORE: A new website that is billed to emerge as a commercial networking site of the future will offer a host of services, including the one that enables you to send, receive, store, sort, print, search and pay a range of bills.

Conceived by P.C. Hashir, managing director of Peeci Group, a masters degree holder in engineering from NIT-K Surathkal, the website billmailid.com “will enable overseas citizens to get all their home country bills to their BillMail ID and pay it.”

Mr. Hashir told presspersons here on Saturday that mobile phone number in reverse order will be the id for the website to be launched globally from Monday.

Promising to link all banks and financial institutions and making it available through bank counters, ATMs, kiosks at strategic locations and third party franchisees, he said: “People can store all their bills for many years in the cloud which is part of BillMail ID and all this for free”.

The website will find ways to get all payment options into the portal — credit or debit card, cheque, cash and cash cards.

An advantage it offers, Mr. Hashir said, was that traders can use the “patented application” for creating their bills and link it to their accounting software. There would be a free downloadable version of the billing software which they can use for offline purposes as well. One member of the portal could send an invoice to another user who would send a purchase order followed by a bill and then get payment and subsequently deliver goods. It would thus emerge as a commercial networking site and unique id could percolate into people's business card, he said.

Mr. Hashir said the company had already struck an agreement with a bank but the contractual clauses prevented him from revealing its name.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2010/12/12/stories/2010121262220700.htm)

BIOMETRIC E-ATTENDANCE IN GOVT. OFFICES FROM JAN. 1

By S.T. Ravikumar

The tedious process of beginning the day's work by attesting one's signature on the attendance register will be done away with for government officials in various departments of the city, with the installation of biometric attendance system.

As a systems improvement initiative, a Biometric Attendance Control System will be installed in government offices in city, starting on Jan. 1. An order to this effect was issued by Mysore Dy. Commissioner Harsha Gupta on Dec. 9 (Order No. ADM/CR86).

The decision was taken up at a meeting chaired by the District In-Charge Minister S.A. Ramdas on Dec. 6, as part of steps taken towards administrative reforms.

Under this system, all officials will be registering their arrivals in the morning and departure for the day. All officers and officials are expected to work for a minimum period of 8 hours a day (9 am to 5.30 pm) with an hour-long lunch break). The purpose of introducing the system is to regulate this aspect — 8 hours of work a day and 48 hours in a week. In case those delayed due to transport/ traffic problem or some other reasons, a reasonable period of 15-25 minutes will be acceptable subject to their adjusting their working hours upto 8 hours, by delaying their departure.

Instead of employees punching in a time-card or logging their attendance by hand, they simply place their finger on the Fingerprint Reader sensor or place their hand into the Hand Reader or flash a card in front of the card reader, and the machine does the rest.

As per the DC's directive, all officials and officers will have to register their attendance between 9.45 am and 10.10 am in the morning and between 5.30 pm and 6 pm in the evening.

The Chief Executive Officer and the Tahasildar will be responsible for obtaining a computer printout of the attendance on a daily basis, serve notice to the absentees the next day, seek their explanation and make the habitual offenders report to the DC, as per the order.

Speculations are rife about the biometric system bringing in administrative reforms as mere improvement in attendance would not necessarily translate into productivity, efficiency and elimination of corruption.

SOM

Mangalore Today News Network


Mangalore, December 27: People in the city now have one more avenue where they can make their water bill payments. Directorate of electronic delivery of citizen services, Bangalore, with effect from December 23 has cleared Mangalore One Centres as place where payments of water bills issued by Mangalore City Corporation will be accepted. People hitherto had to depend on branches of select nationalised banks for this purpose.


Mangalore One Centres for the present accept payment of electricity bills, BSNL, Airtel and Vodafone mobile bill payments, sell passport applications, and accept payment of property tax. There are three Mangalore One Centres functional in the city for now and are located at Lalbagh (MCC building, Ph: 2459959), Light House Hill Road (K S R Memorial building, 2420086), and Kadri (MCC commercial complex building, 2216008).

The services are available from 8 am to 8 pm on all days of the year. These services are on jurisdiction free basis. Citizens may visit any Mangalore One Centre to pay their bills and services are available at all three centres and all the counters. The services are delivered free of cost to the people, who can make payments through cash, cheque or demand draft. More centres and services would be added to the Mangalore One Project.

The inclusion of water bill payment at Mangalore One Centres should come as relief to people who complained of long queues and reluctance of banks to accept them on all days of the week. The issue commonly cropped up during council meetings of the civic body with members expressing concern over problems faced by people in making payments of water bills at bank branches and demanding that more banks be roped in. TOI


E-governence is at door steps of Mangalore residents.:banana:

I think water bill payment facility will be now available all over Karnataka - Bangalore One, Mysore One, Gulbarga One, etc.

KIC to provide RTI alerts on mobile



Thursday, 30 December 2010, 12:24 IST
Bangalore: The Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) is taking another tech-savvy step. From the first week of 2011 Right to Information applicants will receive SMS alerts on the status of the cases. As per the reports as of now a complaint or a petitioner will get three SMSs free from the commission - registration of case, hearing date and disposal.

If a petitioner needs more information on the status of the case on a regular basis, he will have to a pay 10 paise per every SMS received. The service will be launched on a trial basis on Friday.

The petitioner or respondent can sms their case number to 92123 57123 to get details of their case. In 2010, the KIC received 15,886 complaints out of which 6,690 have been disposed. The statistics provided by KIC reveal that 519 officials in 2010 were fined a collective amount of 22.69 lakh for not providing information under RTI.

Making use of the recently introduced facility of video conferencing, KIC has conducted hearings on 18 cases. There are about 35 cases pending in High Court challenging the orders of the KIC.

By SiliconIndia (http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/KIC_to_provide_RTI_alerts_on_mobile_-nid-76372-cid-1.html)

Palike to use GIS for property tax collection

Express News Service
First Published : 01 Jan 2011 03:04:17 AM IST
Last Updated : 01 Jan 2011 09:37:39 AM IST

BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahangara Palike has released a list of projects and programmes that they would undertake in the new year. They have put online building plan approval system and use of Global Information System (GIS) for property tax collection.

The Palike has aimed to achieve Rs 1,600 crore as they claimed to have completed 95 per cent of the surveys.

They have reasserted the importance of waste segregation at source and will be encouraging and setting up such units in schools, apartments, hospitals, malls, commercial complexes and other public places.

They have also aimed to plant 5 lakh saplings in all 198 wards of the city and increase the efforts to restore and develop tree parks.

Added to this, they would undertake development of 17 lakes at the cost of Rs 200 crore.

They would set up rainwater harvesting units at all parks and other residential places.

They have also stated that they would improve the conditions of all 111 hospitals and six of them to be converted into hitech hospitals which would be enabled to serve 24 hours a day.

Added to this, they would be distributing of notebooks, uniforms, bags and so on for students of BBMP schools and colleges. They have also aimed to construct 10,000 homes for people from SC/ST and other Backward classes.

I guess few other cities in the state are using GIS?

City cops switch over to IT in 2011
Sreekantswamy B

Mysore:Henceforth, city police will be switching over to computers, bidding goodbye to monotonous paper work, a New Year gift to the people.

As part of a State-wide initiative, the cops here are honing their skills on computers under the banner of Police Information Technology (Police- IT) programme. A brain child of DG and IG of Police Dr Ajai Kumar Singh, it is expected to be launched in a fortnight.

The programme has been devised in such a way that, it eases the burden on police working in the positions of Investigation Officers (IO) Assistants, Station House Officers (SHO) and up to the rank of Assistant Commissioners, in their routine work.

For example, if a First Information Report (FIR) is filed in a case, the data would be loaded into the computers equipped with software that enables the functioning of Police-IT. The unit officers- Police Commissioner in the case of city, Superintendent of Police for district/s and IGP for range/s can have a glimpse of the case at their offices, at the click of the mouse. They will be provided with required login and password.

As is the system now, cops carry the required files to their higher ups in case of any necessity. It would be a passé, once the programme comes into effect, also checking men utilisation. Sometimes, the cops, though deployed at a point, had to be summoned and briefed about the nature of case in the file to him / her before reaching to the top cops. Be it deputation of men, again IT serves as an added advantage. Most importantly, the police headquarters in Bangalore can also keep a tab on all the cases, at the mouse click. This apart, other districts police can have a look into the cases, if there is any similarity in the cases they are dealing with.

Already, all the police stations have been computerised and the cases are being loaded into the systems. As and when the officers required the particulars of the case, the print outs are being forwarded to them by hand.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and traffic) P Rajendra Prasad told Deccan Herald, already 125 men (45 in first batch, 40 in another two batches) have undergone 10 days training each in theory and practical, at the centre opened for the purpose atop VV Puram Traffic Police Station in V V Mohalla.

The morning session is theoretical from 10 am to 1.30 pm, and afternoon session from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm practical. Training is being conducted on three modules- Crime, Traffic and Law and order. The fourth and final batch would be trained shortly, as the cops were busy on poll duty, the officer added.

It is indeed a gift to the people again, who can rely upon this new system, which helps them know the status of their cases too.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/125311/city-cops-switch-over-2011.html)

E-auctioning facility launched at Gulbarga APMC yard

Special Correspondent

Initially it will be confined to red gram: NCDEX

It helps farmers sell their produce at remunerative prices

Scheme to be extended to pulses, foodgrains in future

GULBARGA: The country's first e-auctioning facility for agricultural commodities was set up by National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd. (NCDEX) at the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard here, opening up another transparent facility for farmers to market their produce at remunerative prices.

Initially, the e-auctioning facility will be confined to red gram that arrives at the APMC yard. The farmers can store their produce in a godown and bring only a sample product for e-auctioning.

Regional Commissioner Rajaneesh Goel inaugurated the e-auctioning facility in the presence of R. Ramasheshan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NCDEX.

Mr. Ramasheshan, who had come from Mumbai to attend the function, said that e-auctioning facility at the Gulbarga APMC yard would be extended to other pulses and foodgrains in the days to come.. “E-auctioning will enable the farmers to access traders throughout the country and get remunerative prices for their produce,” he said. Mr. Ramasheshan said that NCDEX planned to establish e-auctioning at the APMC yard at Talikot and Muddhebehal in Bijapur district shortly.

He said that all the produce that arrived at the APMC yard would be graded and given code numbers and traders or their representatives having access to the samples with code numbers could participate in the e-auctioning from their respective offices in Gulbarga or elsewhere in the country. Farmers would have the choice of accepting the price offered by the trader or rejecting it. Once the offer was accepted, the NCDEX would take the responsibility of transferring the goods to the trader and the related payment to the trader.

Director of the Agricultural Marketing Department V.B. Patil spoke.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/01/29/stories/2011012960390300.htm)

Soon, urban properties will have ownership record

Feb. 2: Akin to the Centre’s move to provide unique identification (UID) numbers to citizens, urban properties in Karnataka will soon have a unique identity — Urban Property Ownership Record (UPOR) or Form 13, which will soon be a must for all regulatory and legal purposes.

The Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records (SSLR) has started a pilot project in five towns of the state — Mangalore, Bellary, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, and Shimoga in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode at a cost of around `40 crore. “The reason behind the UPOR, which is being implemented as per the provisions of Karnataka Land Revenue Act and Rules, is to give authentic property ownership records to genuine owners and to detect and save government property which has been encroached.

“As of now there are no valid ownership documents for urban properties. People depend on khata and sale deeds, which are not ownership documents. In the absence of the PR card, which is Form 13 of the KLR Rules (ownership documents of urban areas), people believe that khata and sale deeds are ownership records. The SSLR has the mandate to create and maintain urban property ownership records and issue Form 13 to genuine owners. The property card for irregular and encroached properties will be marked so that there can be no transaction on them,” said secretary, revenue department, Rajiv Chawla.

He added that the SSLR department will send the details of encroachment and irregular properties to the government for a policy decision on them. Since the UPOR Project involves mapping and measuring of all properties; the department has launched a massive awareness campaign in these five towns to educate the people on property rights; the UPOR and why it is important to have such a record. Later they will call for objections from the public.

“We are measuring and mapping all individual properties in the five towns, collecting ownership documents from each household along with the tax paid receipts (khata) and layout maps,” said Mr K.V. Rudresha, deputy director, SSLR, Bengaluru.

Deccan Chronicle (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/bengaluru/soon-urban-properties-will-have-ownership-record-670)

Bantwala Town Council has developed its own software itself for Bill Payment. - Udayavani.
Great! Keep it up!!:banana:

Something non e-governance:
Write your messages on a website now (http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/05/stories/2011020560630700.htm)

Dakshina District police on Facebook

Anisha Sheth


http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00379/03mnans_District_po_379693e.jpg
It isn't every day that an ordinary citizen can ask the district police, “Y is ur official website not updated?” This is one of the most recent posts on the Facebook page of the district police, which recently took to the social networking site.

Since its launch on January 1, it now has 509 “friends” who comment on posts by the police and post links to police-related information. Its followers include ordinary citizens from the region, politicians, and journalists, and social clubs. Friend requests (which allow users to communicate freely if accepted) are occasionally sent out to people from the district using the search option. Despite the small following (Mangalore has a population of over six lakh), there is no dearth of comments on the activities and crime-related news (crime within the jurisdiction of the Superintendent of Police) posted by the police.

Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao said the purpose was to keep the police abreast of technology and have a presence on a forum that youngsters frequently used. He said it was mainly an image building exercise as even though one of the functions was to disseminate information, the scope was limited to the number of people who follow it on the social network.

“We try to put our side of the story and our point of view out. We can get feedback immediately,” Mr. Rao said.

The page was maintained and updated by an officer of the rank of sub-inspector, who works out of a newly created Public Relations Cell for the district police.

The officer is assisted by an IT-trained police constable.

“The point is to make it sub-inspector-dependent and not SP-dependent,” he said. For this reason, the page would not include Facebook features such as discussions and notes, which were popular among users of the social networking site.

The cell would manage all IT-related activities of the district police in future as well as give out information that could be required by the public and the media. It would handle the Right to Information applications, Mr. Rao added.

SP says it is aimed at reaching out to tech-savvy youth

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article1155308.ece)

^^ Dakshin Kannada police are the most tech savvy.

Probably they were the first in the country to blog

http://spdk.blogspot.com/

B''lore police bags gold award for B-trac project

Bangalore, Feb 7 (PTI) Bangalore city police has bagged the gold award for innovative use of technology ine-governance in the implementation of B-trac project, a top police official said today.

Announcing the award, which is given out by the union Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances department, City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said, "It is for the first time that a police force in the country has been awarded the Gold award for innovative use of technology for e-governance".


B-trac has been implemented in Bangalore city during the years 2008-2010 with about Rs 120 crore financial support from the Karnataka government.

Bidari said that with the implementation of B-trac scheme, "Bangalore city has earned the distinction of being the most modern technology-driven traffic management system in the country". It has also earned the distinction of being the first city in the country where "traffic enforcement is 100per cent technology-driven and paperless", he added.

By proper implementation of the B-trac project, excellent results have been achieved in traffic enforcement, traffic regulation and prevention of accidents, Bidari said.

Due to the addition of South-East division to Bangalore city in September 2007 and North-East division in May 2008,the area of the city has increased by 600 sq kms to 1,200 sq kms, he said.

During the past two years, the carriage way was taken away as a result of large scale developmental works such as metro, fly-overs, underpasses and over bridges. Inspite of these factors, the Bangalore city police have achieved unprecedented success in traffic enforcement by implementing the B-trac project, Bidari said.

The Commissioner said that despite the increase in thesize of the city and the amount of vehicles on the road --four million and counting, second only to New Delhi -- there has been a decrease in the number accidents and the number of deaths and injuries due to accidents.

The 6,483 road accidents recorded in 2010 was lower than the one recorded in 2007, when it was 8,426, he said. There has has also been a decrease in the number of deaths due to traffic accidents -- 858 in 2010 as compared to 981 in 2007.

He added the number of persons injured in traffic accidents has also come down from 6,591 in 2007 to 5,343 in 2010.

Bidari lauded the hard work put in by officers and men working in traffic branch in the past two and a half years.

"On account of their sustained efforts, Bangalore city now has the distinction of a minimum number of accidents per one lakh population or per sq.km area", he said.

The award will be presented to city police at Aurangabad on Feb 10, 2011 by the union government.

Source (http://news.oneindia.in/2011/02/07/blorepolice-bags-gold-award-for-b-tracproject-aid0126.html)

Saturday, 05 February 2011 12:45

Mangalore, February 5: For the better functioning of the paperless office process, initiated by the former Deputy Commissioner V Ponnuraj, a new work station has been launched in the Office of Deputy Commissioner.

District In-charge Minister Krishna J Palemar on Saturday formally inaugurated the work station situated next to the DC’s chamber in presence of DC Subodh Yadav, Additional DC Prabhakar Sharma and MCC Commissioner KN Vijayaprakash.

Later speaking to media persons DC Yadav said that the work station will pave the way for better functioning of paperless office and also reduce the required space for all the staff of the DC office.

Both internet and intranet facility will be provided to all the computers in the workshop, as most of the staff will be busy in online duties updating the status of applications throughout the district, he said.

The DC also said that a legal advisor will also be appointed for the office to look after the various legal matters as per the direction of state government within a week. A retired Chief Judicial Magistrate level officer is expected to take charge of the legal affairs of the district administration, he added.
Coastal Digest (http://www.coastaldigest.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20095:work-station-to-facilitate-better-functioning-of-paperless-dc-office-launched&catid=57:news-stories&Itemid=68)

Renuka Phadnis

* Here is a website for people who forget to pay their bills

http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/10/images/2011021059740401.jpg
The web page of trackeverycoin.com

MANGALORE: Whenever a group spends money collectively on dinner outside or buys a gift for a colleague, usually one person is left with the task of sorting out who paid what and who owes whom.

Now, a person can go online and track — on a computer or on a mobile phone — details of what is bought because of him and even send email reminders to forgetful friends.

On www.trackeverycoin.com, built by a Bangalore-based entrepreneur, the user can click on “Who owes me?” to send friends an email alert about the money due.

Besides group spends, a person can use the website for tracking personal expenses. He can set a monthly “budget” to get an alert every time he adds an expense or get alerts on what he has spent already. He can add recurring expense such as house rent or car loan amounts. Once the expense is marked as “recurring”, users need not add these expenses every month. The website can send to the user email reminders of bills to be paid such as for mobile phone or car insurance. The user can “search” to check if he has paid a particular bill. He can also “search” by category or description, within a given date range, how much he has spent, and see how much he has spent on just coffee or pizza in the whole year.

A person on a business trip can mark an expense as “reimbursable” and take a printout or even send that directly to the HR in an office.

The website supports international currency.

The site is accessible on the mobile phone (http://m.trackeverycoin.com) so users can add expenses instantly while on the move, as in a supermarket or at a party, said Vikram V. Chadaga, founder and CEO, Ionlab, which built the website. For group spends, the user can take the “split bill” feature, enter who owes him how much and click “save”. The date and time is automatically recorded and the friend gets a “you owe XYZ Rs…” email.

The website, free of cost, has enlisted 2,000 users in the past couple of months, said Mr. Chadaga.

Technology professional Ankesh Saha said: “The website looks like a good tool. The FAQ tab explains well how to use it. I will use it when I want to track my expenses next”.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/10/stories/2011021059740400.htm)

E-tender system is commenced in Sulya APMC, Dakshina Kannada district. In every district of Karnataka a selected APMC is told to adapt e-tender process. E-tender software is developed by KEONICS.

E-governance projects in Mysore

MYSORE: Changing with the times, the government has conceptualized many e-governance projects. What it requires for better implementation is trained manpower. In that perspective, offering the right training is city's Mahajana's PG Centre.

The one-year post-graduate diploma in e-governance helps candidates understand the system of e-governance and builds manpower that can design and conceptualize e-governance projects, not just in government but in private sectors too.

The e-governance course was sanctioned to the institute by the UGC in 2007. It is the only institute in Mysore that offers the post-graduate programme, which prepares the students for the administration sector.

Calling e-governance the order of the day, Mahajana Post Graduate Centre director C R Renukarya says, "e-governance enables the use of communication technologies like internet and cellphones by both the government and private sectors to promote effective service delivery. Hence, the academic programme will prove useful for students from all disciplines, particularly those who are already in administration, more so to the zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat functionaries, who are required to transact online with the government."

Programme co-coordinator and assistant professor at the centre Rachana CR explains, "Granted to the institute by UGC, the PG diploma was started under the innovative programme scheme in 2007. The programme is beneficial to those serving or wanting to serve in the administrative sector, for it also gives them a proficiency in the subject of computer science. We have students from all disciplines and some working professionals who aim to serve in the field of government-IT and e-governance sectors."

Some of the subjects taught through the two semesters include: public administration and entrepreneurship development, introduction to e-governance, e-governance architecture, data base, data warehousing, information systems, design and analysis, software engineering and testing and e governance applications. At the end of the programme, the students are required to undertake a project work.

The students who obtain this PG degree will have an added degree, to get suited to any corporate or administrative sector, which practices e-governance.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/E-governance-projects-in-Mysore/articleshow/7463195.cms)

Hescom to go digital, aims transparency

HUBLI: Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) is all set to computerise its human resource management system to ensure transparency in administration and to increase efficiency of employees to provide better service to consumers.

If every thing goes as per the plan, all divisions of Hescom will be computerised in the next eight months. Irregularities and mismanagement in store department and alleged misappropriation of funds by accounts officers have finally prompted Hescom to computerise the system.

Hescom will now cover all seven districts of North Karnataka region -- Dharwad, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Karwar, Haveri and Gadag. As of now, about 7,000 employees including engineers and meter readers are working in 19 divisions across seven districts. All the 69 sub-divisions henceforth will come under scanner after computerization of each section.

All the sections such as store section, accounting section, legal section and tendering process will be computerised, which are now manually maintained.

"We have noticed huge mismanagement in store departments. There will be movement of material in the store wherein loading and unloading happens on routine basis. As we are finding it difficult to keep an eye on those involved in mismanagement due to present system, computerization is planned. Besides, we will also generate computerised billings to clear the payments of contractors to ensure transparency," Pankajkumar Pandey, MD, HESCOM told TOI.

The entire tendering process will be computerized. "After computerization, details of each employee including the work allotted to him or her and the target achieved can be verified at any time," he said, adding, "We can easily keep a track on the performance of each section and tackle employees who are at fault and misusing powers for personal gains."

However, computerization process will cost Hescom around Rs 7 crore. A proposal has already been sent to the government in this regard, which is expected to get approved in the board meeting scheduled on February 18, he said.


The Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Hescom-to-go-digital-aims-transparency/articleshow/7463152.cms#ixzz1DdYveA32)

Karnataka sets pace for issue of UID (http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=222980)

Bangalore, Feb 17: Unique Identification Number (Aadhaar) will be issued to all residents of Karnataka in phases over the next couple of months. The State Government has prepared a plan to ensure that all residents are covered.

For obtaining the UID number, people have to go to designated centres and provide the required information. On fulfilling the requirements, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will dispatch the numbers by registered post to each individual.

The Department of e-Governance of the State government is the registrar for the issue of numbers (an overall authority for the programme). While the process of issuing UID numbers in Bangalore Rural and adjoining districts will commence on April 1, the programme will be launched in Bangalore city on May 1. All residents in the State are expected to be issued numbers by December 2011.

Documentary proof

People have to provide documentary proof prescribed by the UIDAI as evidence of proof of identity, proof of address and date of birth — termed as Know Your Resident information. At the designated centre, people have to provide their biometric details (their fingerprints and photograph will be taken and iris scanned). Interestingly, the UID number card is only for residents above the age of 15. Those below the age of 15 will be given a number on production of birth certificate, and the number will form a composite part of the parental card.

Principal Secretary, Department of e-Governance, M.N. Vidyashankar, who is overseeing the implementation of the UID number programme, told The Hindu that the project implemented so far in Mysore and Tumkur from October 8, 2010 had been regarded a success.

As on January 31, 6,49,998 residents of the State have been issued UID numbers. About 20,000 residents are being enrolled on a daily basis in the two districts and the target is to issue UID numbers to 95 per cent of the nearly 50 lakh population in the two districts by June-end. Of the nearly 20 lakh people enrolled across the country, nearly 14 lakh are residents of Karnataka.

Mr. Vidyashankar said Karnataka had scored over all States in the implementation of the programme, although Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh launched it ahead of the State.

The implementation of the programme is set to pick up pace across Karnataka with the finalising of the bids for its coverage in 26 districts in about a week.

While Wipro and Comsat Technologies have been given the task of enrolment in Tumkur and Mysore, several other companies are expected to be involved in the remaining districts. The UIDAI will spend Rs. 34.35 for the issue of each number — a card that will have the number, photo of the resident and a barcode.

Karnataka RTOs all set to banish queues and touts (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_karnataka-rtos-all-set-to-banish-queues-and-touts_1509049)

Mr. Shetty said that the corporation had planned to introduce smartcards for issuing water bills. It would be first introduced for commercial and apartment connections. The civic body would have to replace the water meters at its own cost before introducing smartcard-based water billing. Under the proposed billing method, whoever took water connection would get a message on their cellphone when the bill collector swiped the card. The civic body had invited bids for this. Rajendra, outgoing Deputy Mayor, Shantha R, outgoing chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Health, Education and Social Justice, and Roopa D. Bangera, outgoing chairperson of the Committee on Taxation, Finance and Appeals were present.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/26/stories/2011022664540500.htm)

Akash, whether other cities like Mysuru have this? Or is it getting introduced for the first time in Karnataka?

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/26/stories/2011022664540500.htm)

Akash, whether other cities like Mysuru have this? Or is it getting introduced for the first time in Karnataka?

I have no idea Krishnamoorthy I guess it is first time in KA

* It will come up in Khanija Bhavan in Bangalore Deputy Commissioner

Gulbarga: Deputy Director-General of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and State Informatics Officer A. Venkatesan has said a full-fledged state-of-the-art data centre will come up in Khanija Bhavan in Bangalore for facilitating e-governance.

He was speaking at a workshop on e-governance in Gulbarga University here on Tuesday. It was organised by the Central University of Karnataka.

Mr Venkatesan said that the NIC has entered into a tie-up with the Reliance Communications for the establishment of the networking centre and other infrastructure facilities in the proposed data centre. He stressed the need to introduce e-governance in all the government departments and said that it would help curb corruption and bring in a qualitative change in administration. It would help people get their grievances redressed from their homes without visiting government offices. Citing the example of e-tax payment facility, he said that paying taxes has become easier than before because it can be done online without visiting the office of the commercial taxes.

According to Mr. Venkatesan, the NIC proposes to establish citizen data hub in which basic details of all citizens would be stored and through this hub, the unique IDs would be given. Referring to the difficulties and hurdles faced in the maintenance of the land records in the State, Mr. Venkatesan said the NIC and State Informatics were trying to provide the permanent solution through e-governance. He added that the NIC has been asked to computerise the district and taluk courts in the State.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner of Gulbarga district K. Vishal inaugurated the workshop. On the occasion, he said it is important to maintain secrecy about personal information of citizens and information pertaining to land records in the Bhoomi and Nemmadi projects. He also stressed the importance of maintaining a backup for the data fed in these two programmes, which would come in handy when the system develops technical problems. Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Karnataka S. Chandrasekhar said it is necessary to understand how e-governance would help higher education.

A large number of faculty members of the university participated.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/02/stories/2011030254100500.htm)

More than a year back they said this?

Banks happy with proposal on e-registry (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/01/stories/2011030152480300.htm)
E-payment of provident fund (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/E-payment-of-provident-fund/articleshow/7588918.cms)

When all PF offices and banks in our state will be upto date with e-payment and e-registry?

I have no idea Krishnamoorthy I guess it is first time in KA

Could it be related to BillMailID?

Karnataka tobacco see-saws at auctions


http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/multimedia/dynamic/00497/BL09_TOBACCO_AUCTIO_497550f.jpg

Buyers bidding through handheld devices at the tobacco auction at Platform No 3 in Hunsur, Mysore district on Wednesday. The Tobacco Board of India is conducting a pilot of e-auctions at Hunsur.- Photo: G R N Somashekar

HUBLI, MARCH 8:
Tobacco prices are fluctuating between Rs 5 and Rs 10 a kg on a weekly basis at different auction platforms for the last one month.

The key reason attributed for the fluctuation is that the crop size is huge at around 130 million kg against authorised crop size fixed at 97.95 million kg and also when big tobacco companies descend on the market prices move up sharply and when small and medium companies enter the prices are correcting.

?This fluctuation has led to a few farmers holding on the crop confused as to when to sell their produce,? said Mr T Vikram Raj Urs, a tobacco grower and secretary Federation of Karnataka Tobacco Growers' Association farmer.

At the end of the 124-day of auction (March 7), about 83.67 million kg (8.24 lakh bales) of FCV tobacco variety have been marketed in Karnataka, with an average price of Rs 96.10 a kg.

Of the total quantity marketed, bright grades comprised of 16 million kg with an average price of Rs 119.35. Medium grades comprised of 43 million kg, were traded at an average price of Rs 103.61/kg. Low grades, comprised of 25 million kg, were traded at an average price of Rs 68.18/kg.

Following are platform-wise auction details, as on March 7:

H.D.Kote 79,766 bales marketed (7.64 million kg), average price Rs 92.87/kg. Hunsur-1 47,786 bales (4.89 million kgs), Rs 98.83 a kg.Hunsur-2 68,494 bales (7.01 million kgs), Rs 96.90 a kg. Periyapatna-1 95,721 bales (9.70 million kg), Rs 96.75 a kg. Periyapatna-2 89,546 bales (9.23 million kg) Rs 99.77 a kg.Periyapatna-3 81,714 bales (8.47 million kg) Rs 96.75 kg. Ramanathpura-1 84,409 bales (8.52 million kg) Rs 93.52 a kg. Kampalapura-1 78,630 bales (7.90 million kg) Rs 97.83 a kg. Kampalapura-2 67,031 bales (6.74 million kg) Rs 96.70 a kg. Ramanathpura-2 81,329 bales (8.49 million kg) Rs 91.82 a kg. Hunsur-3 49,996 bales (5.03 million kg) Rs 96.25 a kg.

Business Line (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/article1520486.ece?homepage=true)

Technology Penetrating rural India :cheers:

Karnataka govt to pioneer BPO for RTI filing

Pradeesh Chandran / Bangalore March 09, 2011, 0:50 IST

In an innovative departure, the government of Karnataka is set to outsource to experts all citizen queries against itself.

It says it has planned a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre, first of its kind in the country, exclusively for filing petitions under the national Right to Information (RTI) Act. Citizens need only call the centre, expected to be located here, to file RTI applications, for a fee.

“We will open a call centre in Bangalore for the process and a person can call up the centre and file an RTI against any department in the state. Unlike other BPO calls, the user will be charged. The charge will be considered as the fee for filing an RTI (application),” M N Vidyashankar, principal secretary of the e-Governance department told Business Standard.
Called 'Mahiti' (information in Kannada), the project will be launched in June. The BPO is to be clubbed with a grievance redressal supervision and monitoring system, to track the RTI complaints. Vidyashankar said the BPO is to work for 12 hours a day. “After studying the response, we might extend the timing to make it available round-the-clock. With this, more people can seek information through the RTI route,” he said. One may file RTI queries in both n Kannada and English.

Karnataka presently sees 60,000 to 65,000 RTI filings every year.

According to highly placed sources, leading Indian and global information technology companies which also offer BPO services have expressed interest in the project. The selected one is expected to be announced later this week.

Other ideas

Apart from this, the state government is planning to make all financial transactions of the finance department, paperless. The department has initiated the project and has received preliminary bids. It is understood that nine companies (including India's top IT service providers Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro) have expressed interest in participating.

When asked about enrollment in the Unique Identification project (‘Aadhaar’), Vidyashankar said 1.5 million people had been added in the first phase. The government is planning to appoint an agency each in the four revenue divisions of Bangalore, Gulbarga, Belgaum and Mysore for the process.

“We expect to launch the enrolment drive in Bangalore from April 1. There will be one permanent enrollment centre in all districts,” said Vidyashankar. The e-governance department is to shortly commission its second data centre, with an investment of Rs 53 crore. It will be maintained by TCS for five years.

The Hindu (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/karnataka-govt-to-pioneer-bpo-for-rti-filing/427874/)

Legal aid clinic set up in Chitradurga

Staff Correspondent
Clinic will try to bring public interest cases to the notice of the municipal council

‘Cases of any official demanding bribe can also be referred to the legal body'

Chitradurga: M.A. Sashikala, Principal District and Sessions Judge, on Tuesday inaugurated a legal aid clinic on the premises of the City Municipal Council building here.

Speaking after inaugurating the clinic, she said that the clinic would function between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays. “Initially, the clinic will function one day in a week. However, depending on the response, the number of days will be increased. This free facility is the result of the initiative taken by municipal council president Sunita Mallikarjun and Commissioner Vijay Kumar,” she said. The clinic would also try to bring public interest cases to the notice of the municipal council. “Quite often, we get complaints of the municipality not supplying water properly. Even though such cases have no direct link with the judiciary, steps will be taken to bring them to the notice of the municipal council. By doing so, the clinic will be acting as a mediator between the people and the municipality,” she said. S.K. Basavarajan, MLA, complimented Ms. Mallikarjun and Mr. Vijay Kumar for their initiative in this regard and urged the people to make proper use of the services. There was a wrong notion among the public that none of the work could be moved in government departments without bribes.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/09/stories/2011030953000500.htm)

* Namma Metro for hassle-free commute, SBI to offer financial solutions

You need not worry about recharging or topping up the contact-less smart card (CSC) for your daily commute on Namma Metro after it becomes operation on Reach 1 between Byappanahalli and M.G. Road.

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) is making all efforts to ensure a hassle-free commute by rolling out commuter-friendly recharge options.

You can simply visit the neighbourhood mobile services retail shop and get your smart card recharged or topped up just like you get your mobile phone recharged or topped up, is what the BMRCL officials say.

Other options

The BMRCL has already appointed the State Bank of India as its acquirer bank to provide different financial solutions.

Those who have SBI accounts can easily recharge or top up their smart cards either through net banking or through ATM centres.

The SBI could also issue a new combo card to its customers which can act as an ATM card as well as travel card. The smart cards can also be recharged at the Namma Metro ticket counters.

The contactless smart cards offer discounted fares for passengers and come in two kinds — Varshik to perform multiple journeys between any station, and Sanchar for fixed number of trips between two particular stations. Passengers can buy the CSC at Rs. 50 and can load either Varshik or Sanchar or both on it. For Varshik, a passenger can load maximum of Rs. 1,500 in multiples of Rs. 50; the CSC will be valid for one year from the date of last “add value”.

Apart from metro stations, values can be added through ATMs, net banking and mobile banking of SBI; Bangalore Metro website and scratch cards through SMS.

However, BMRCL thought that a commuter even without a net banking account or a debit card should have an easy option to recharge or top up the card. Besides enhancing the comfort level of the commuter, this will also bring in more number of people from sections of society who don't have sophisticated banking facilities.

Hence, it thought of offering the mobile recharge facility wherein a commuter visits the retailer, pays the required amount and gets the recharge done. All he has to do is to give the money and the 11 digit smart card number to the retailer. After the recharge is done, the retailer as well as the commuter will get message from BMRCL server that the card has been recharged/ topped up to the required amount.

BMRCL is in the process of selecting a mobile service provider which has large presence in the State as well as in Bangalore to provide this facility.

The service provider will also have to indicate how a commuter, who does not even have a mobile phone, get communication about the recharge/ top up of his card.

Initially however, only those having mobile phones could get this facility after registering their mobile numbers the card number with the BMRCL server. Any number of smart cards could be registered for one mobile phone, BMRCL said.

Sandbag trial

Continuing the trial tests on the ‘down track' of Reach 1, Bangalore Metro on Wednesday conducted full load trial by loading sand bags into the metro coaches. The test was conducted at different speeds to test the response of the track as well as coaches to the speed and load, BMRCL spokesperson said. The trial tests on the ‘up track' could start after March 14, he added.

ANIL KUMAR SASTRY

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/10/stories/2011031059570300.htm)

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/03/11/20110311z_003100003.jpg

MANGALORE: Ration card woes may finally come to an end with the state government deciding to empower the department of food and civil supplies to handle all future transactions related to preparation and disbursal of ration cards in the state. This process was hitherto outsourced to Comet Technologies and the government a month ago terminated the contract given to the company and decided to go in-house.

Vrushabarajendramurthy, deputy director, department of food and civil supplies, told TOI here on Tuesday that four-stage verification is on at the gram panchayat level using the panchatantra software. A survey of tax-paying households with ration cards, non-tax paying households, card holders not residing in the gram panchayat, and people not having a ration card but residing in a gram panchayat limits is being surveyed in this verification.

TOI (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-08/mangalore/28667730_1_ration-cards-card-holders-informal-rationing-area)

BS (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/karnataka-to-pioneer-tele-filingrti-petitions/428394/)

Karnataka, better known for its leading Indian and global IT companies, is all set to open a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre - the first of its kind in the country — exclusively for filing petitions under the Right to Information Act. Citizens need to call up the centre, expected to be located in Bangalore, to file RTI applications, in lieu of some charges.

“We will open a call centre in Bangalore for the process and a person can call up the centre and file an RTI against any department in the state. Unlike other BPO calls this will be a premium call and the user will be charged. The charge will be considered as the fee for filing RTI,” M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, e-Governance Department, Govt of Karnataka told Business Standard.
Called as ‘Mahiti’ (means information in Kannada), the project will be launched in June. Along with the BPO, the government will also club it with grievance redressal supervision and monitoring system to track the RTI complaints. According to Vidyashankar, once operational, the BPO will work for 12 hours a day. “After studying the response, we might extend the timing to make it available round-the-clock. With this, more people can seek information through the RTI route,” he said. The medium for filing the petition will be in Kannada and English.

Karnataka receives RTI filings of 60,000 to 65,000 every year.

According to highly placed sources, leading Indian and global IT firms who also offers BPO services, have expressed interest in the project. The final bidder is expected to announce later this week.

Apart from this, the state government is planning to make all the financial transactions of the finance department, paperless. The finance department has even initiated the project and has received requests for proposals (RFPs) to this effect. It is understood that nine companies including India’s top IT services firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro have expressed their interest to participate in the project. When asked of the enrollment status of unique identification project (now called Aadhaar), Vidyashankar said more than 1.5 million people had been added in the first phase of enrollment process, in the districts like Tumkur and Mysore.

The government is planning to appoint four agencies for the four revenue divisions — Bangalore, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Mysore — of the state for the process. “We expect to launch the enrollment drive in Bangalore from April 1. There will be one permanent enrollment centre in all districts. In Bangalore, people can also go and register their details in BangaloreOne centres,” Vidyashankar added.

* Consumers can then apply for fresh ration cards

THE RIGHT BALANCE:Shobha Karandlaje, Energy, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister, at the inauguration of World Consumer Rights Day in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Bangalore: The cumbersome process of standing in long queues to apply for a ration card may be a thing of the past soon, if the plans of the Department of Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs to allow submission of ration card applications online come through.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Consumer Rights Day celebrations here on Tuesday, department secretary B.A. Harish Gowda said that this option is likely to be thrown open once the ongoing process of compiling and verifying data on ration cards and gas connections is over.

Fresh cards

Consumers would then have the option of applying for fresh ration cards online in both Above Poverty Line (APL) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) categories.

Mr. Harish Gowda said that the online option would be available for urban areas. In rural areas, efforts are on to connect ration cards to property numbers.

Once that is done, the panchayats would be involved in issuing cards for the first time.

He said that the process of connecting property numbers to the ration cards is on, and once it is done, anybody can approach the local panchayat to apply for a ration card without having to visit any other office.

Fake connections

On the ongoing process of compiling revenue register (RR) numbers and ration card details collected by domestic LPG consumers across the State to weed out multiple connections, Mr. Harish Gowda said that 51 lakh out of 74 lakh consumers had submitted records.

“Approximately about 20 lakh connections may not be genuine across the State,” he said. He said that nationwide about 15 to 20 per cent of gas connections are believed to be not genuine, and Karnataka is the first State to take up verification of this kind. The department is currently doing data validation, which involves physical checking of RR numbers with the electricity supply company database and consumer numbers with the five petroleum companies.

More consumer clubs

Speaking at the Consumer Day celebrations, Minister for Power, Food and Civil Supplies Shobha Karandlaje said that the Government is making an attempt at creating consumer awareness by expanding consumer clubs in schools.

About 2,500 to 3,000 clubs would be added over the next year in schools in all districts, she said.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/16/stories/2011031664590800.htm)

MANGALORE: Online invitations for friendship extended by Dakshina Kannada district police on New Year's Day using Facebook is proving to be a runaway success. In exactly 74-days since launching its Facebook profile, DK district police has clocked 1,000 friends and the current tally stands at 1,010 friends. A quick run through of the online friends list made by district police indicates they are net savvy youths who are into social networking.

"This is a good beginning that we have made in using IT tools to bring younger generation that is into social networking big time, closer to various activities that police undertakes," says SP A Subramanyeswara Rao. The DK district police has always been in the forefront in the use of IT tools. Incidentally, the district police was the first police unit anywhere in India to use blog to disseminate information on its various activities to the netizens as well as the media.

Rao told STOI that the 1,000 plus Facebook friends of district police pales in significance compared to more than 40,000 plus friends that Delhi Traffic Police alone has. "Nonetheless, it is heartening to note that we managed to gain 1,000 plus friends in a little over two months," he said, adding that friendship made in the virtual world would translate into friends in the real world as well, which would bridge the divide between people and the department.

The next step, Rao said would be to migrate from a Facebook profile to a Facebook page and take all the 1,000 plus friends along. Facebook rules actually do not permit an organization to open a profile, which is meant for individuals, he said, adding, "We were lucky to be able to create our own profile. The move (by district police) to shift to an own Facebook page is on," Rao said, adding, this will make the interaction process more personal.

Anitha Mendonca Mathias, regular visitor to Facebook profile of district police, reposes faith in their ability to solve crime when she writes "murders and crme is getting on to be the in thing in dk... anyways we have our efficient dk police to solve these untold mysteries."

The Facebook page will focus on crime and law and order development in his policing unit and less about traffic, which is more of an issue for Mangalore city police, the SP said.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Friends-on-DK-cops-social-networking-site-go-up/articleshow/7744942.cms)

Smart cards distributed

MYSORE: Following the Union Government's directions to provide banking services to the weaker sections of the society and lower income groups at an affordable cost, the Mysore Circle Office of Canara Bank has covered 10 villages of Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajnagar districts and distributed smart cards to Cansaral account holders.

As many as 1,200 smart cards were distributed to account holders here on Saturday. Bank Executive Director Jagadish Pai K.L. and General Manager N. Ramesh inaugurated the programme.

Loans were distributed to 20 physically challenged people and persons from the weaker sections of the society and 60 self help groups under differential interest rate scheme.

J.V. Venugopal, marketing officer, Canara Bank, said the loans had been extended at an interest rate of 4 per cent. Loans were also given to 10 beneficiaries under various government-sponsored schemes.

He said 22 villages in the circle, covering Mysore, Mandya, Chamarajnagar, Kodagu and Hassan districts had been adopted for covering the targeted population under financial inclusion. Among the villages, 10 had been brought under financial inclusion in the first phase, he said.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/21/stories/2011032154310500.htm)


Smart cards distributed to Cansaral account holders


MYSORE: Following the direction of the Government of India to provide banking services to low income groups at an affordable rate, the Mysore Circle office of Canara Bank has brought 10 villages of Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts under financial inclusion and distributed smart cards to Cansaral account holders.

Nearly 1,200 smart cards were distributed at a function here on Saturday. Executive director Jagadish Pai K.L. and general manager N. Ramesh inaugurated the programme.

On the occasion, loans were distributed to 20 physically challenged persons, people from the weaker section of society and 60 self-help groups (SHGs) under the differential interest rate (DIR) scheme.

J.V. Venugopal, marketing officer, Canara Bank, said the loans had been given at an interest rate of 4 per cent.

Loans were also given to 10 beneficiaries under various government-sponsored schemes. He said 22 villages had been adopted in the circle covering Mysore, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu and Hassan districts to bring the target population under financial inclusion. Ten villages had been covered in the first phase, he said and added that 11,000 Cansaral accounts had been opened.

Deputy general manager Subramania Iyer, staff of the circle office and nearby branches were present.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/21/stories/2011032151940200.htm)

In Indian movies, the police almost always arrive late at the scene of the crime. The villain would have invariably escaped by then, leaving behind a group of wailing relatives. Unfortunately, the real life situation in the country is not so different from the reel life. The law enforcement departments are always struggling to curb the rise in criminal activity.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau in the Ministry of Home Affairs, about 66.75 lakh cognisable crimes were reported in 2009 — a staggering increase of 12.4 per cent from the previous year. The charge-sheeting and conviction rates for all violent crimes were 83.7 per cent and 27.2 per cent, respectively, leaving a significant number of cases unsolved.

What is even more alarming is that 46.5 per cent of the people arrested in 2009 belonged to the age group of 18-30 years.

The law enforcement departments of the country are not equipped with modern tools to fight crime.

In many departments, vital information is spread among several databases, making it extremely difficult to piece together facts quickly. And sometimes a database is little more than a box stuffed with paper files under a desk. This cumbersome arrangement can prevent important information from getting to detectives in the crucial hours immediately after a crime. Police are at an even greater disadvantage in battling Internet crime, with criminals constantly devising ever more devious tactics.

Harnessing data

To improve public safety and prevent crimes, police agencies need to harness volumes of data from multiple systems allowing coordination of data across departments. In addition, they need to use powerful analytics that can process vast amounts of crime data. These technologies can help government agencies optimise police work and improve public safety by using advanced data analysis tools to integrate data from its disparate systems.

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) in the U.S., for example, has enhanced its techniques with predictive analytics software and reduced serious crime by more than 30 per cent, including a 15 per cent reduction in violent crimes since 2006. The MPD is now able to evaluate incident patterns throughout the city and forecast criminal “hot spots” to proactively allocate resources and deploy personnel.

As crimes are becoming more sophisticated every day, law enforcement must become smarter. They not only need to ensure that the crimes are investigated speedily, but should also have the capability to predict possible criminal activities. Else, the police will always be late.

ANUJ K. JAIN

(The author is Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia)

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/21/stories/2011032162320700.htm)

Awaiting rare honour

Aadhaar: Will Mysore finish first in the country?
Mysore, march 28, DHNS :

Principal Secretary, Department of e-Governance in the state, M N Vidyashankar stated the month of May has been set as a deadline to complete the registration for Aadhaar, the process which ensures a unique identification number to every citizen of the nation, in Mysore district.

He was speaking after reviewing the progress of Aadhaar at Deputy Commissioner’s office in the district, here on Monday.

Though the pace of registration for Aadhaar has been good, it can do with a little help to speed up the process. Centres have been opened at Village Panchayat level to encourage people from villages to have easy access to the facility. However, people should be encouraged to come for registration by setting up centres at the level of each village - by means of fixing up dates - and provide boost to the project.

Reward too

Mysore may take home the honour of being the first district in the nation to complete the process - in case it achieves it before the end of May. Nodal Officer who strives to achieve this goal within the said deadline will be conferred with ‘Aadhaar Governance Award’.

Respective Tahsildars have been entrusted with the responsibility of Aadhaar Registration Centres. And, setting up of such centres within the city limits has been left to the discretion of Deputy Commissioners.

Assuring immediate attention and help to matters or problems related Aadhaar State Chief Executive Officer for Aadhar Veerendra said officers can seek help from his team if they have any issues pertaining to Aadhaar.

Stressing that some taluks had low turnout and registration for the facility, he said officers concerned should work hard to help people access Aadhaar, more than before.

Aadhaar Public Relations Officer Prabhakar, Additional Deputy Commissioner (in charge) Zaara Nasreen, Tahsildars from all taluks, Hunsur Assistant Commissioner Lingamurthy, Mysore City Corporation Officer Nagendrappa and others were present.

Numbers across the dist

Mysore City Corporation (MCC) has had a whopping 5,56,610 enrollments up to March 26, across its 37 Aadhaar centres. About 12,95,029 people have registered for Aadhaar across the district in 350 units functioning under 91 centres, till March 28, 2011.

The number of people who have opted for the facility at seven centres across 26 units in Periyapatna taluk is 85,695. Across seven centres and 29 units in Hunsur, 1,03,625 people have registered themselves; while in K R Nagar, the number is 1,22,963 across 30 units functioning under eight centres. As far as Mysore rural is concerned, 87,901 people have registered themselves across six centres which also work through 24 units.

In H D Kote, eight centres working through 34 units have been successful in roping in 1,07,670 persons to avail the facility.

Nearly 1,25,121 people have registered at 37 units under 10 Aadhar centres in Nanjangud taluk. About eight centres and 28 units have had 1,05,444 people enrolling in T Narsipur taluk.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/149568/aadhaar-mysore-finish-first-country.html)

Bangalore, March 28, DHNS :

An user-friendly website for the disabled and senior citizens – http://welfareofdisabled.kar.nic.in – was launched to mark the World Senior Citizens’ Day by the Directorate of Disabled and Senior Citizens Welfare, here on Monday.

Minister for Women and Child Development C C Patil felicitated a few senior citizens for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields. Appreciating several paintings by the senior citizens that were on display at the programme, the minister said he would propose to the government to buy these paintings and display them in various government offices. This would encourage them to do more, he added.

Senior citizens K Chinnappa (art); M P Gundappa (education); Kundaru Seethamma Rama Rao (literature); VLS Murthy (senior citizens welfare); Guram R Narayanappa (handicrafts); VHG Kenchana Gowda (freedom fighter); M R Krishnamurthy (drama) and Senior Citizens Welfare Trust were honoured on the occasion.

One of the awardees, M P Gundappa observed that senior citizens could contribute to society by guiding younger generation in the right direction. “It is crucial to impart knowledge on punctuality, sense of duty and pride in work to the younger generation to create a good society,” he said.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/149655/elders-care-goes-online.html)

Youth develops software for blind (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/149630/youth-develops-software-blind.html)

http://bhoomi.karnataka.gov.in/

Bhoomi (meaning land) is the project of on-line delivery and management of land records in Karnataka. It provides transparency in land records management with better citizen services and takes discretion away from civil servants at operating levels.

The Revenue Department in Karnataka, with the technical assistance from National Informatics Centre (NIC), Bangalore, has built and operationalised the BHOOMI system throughout the state. The BHOOMI has computerized 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7 million farmers in the state.

BHOOMI has reduced the discretion of public officials by introducing provisions for recording a mutation request online. Farmers can now access the database and are empowered to follow up. In the BHOOMI project, a printed copy of the RTC can be obtained online by providing the name of the owner or plot number at computerized land record kiosks in 177 taluk offices, for a fee of Rs.15. A second computer screen faces the clients to enable them to see the transaction being performed. A farmer can check the status of a mutation application on Touch Screen Kiosks. If the revenue inspector does not complete the mutation within 45 days, a farmer can now approach a senior officer person with their griveance.

Now, mutation requests are being handled strictly on a first-come-first-served basis eliminating preferential treatment and discretionary powers of the civil servants.

Operators of the computerized system are made accountable for their decisions and actions by using a bio-login system that authenticates every Login through a thumbprint. A log is maintained of all transactions in a session.

The new system has brought about a sea change in the way land records are maintained and administered in the state. The system has not only simplified the process of record keeping but has also provided many collateral benefits. This governance model has proven to be financially self-sustainable. It has become a trendsetter for e-Governance projects in the state as well as other parts of the country.

In the next phase of BHOOMI, the ‘LAND RECORDS ON WEB’ has be established wherein, all the taluk databases are getting uploaded to a web-enabled central database so as to allow the private agencies to set up the village – level kiosk to download the land records documents at the village and issue to the farmers. In this Private Public Participation (PPP) model, all the stakeholders will be benefited in land records delivery.

Curbing illegal mining the e-way
P M Raghunandan Bangalore, April 9, DHNS

With the Supreme Court allowing iron ore export from April 20, the State government is working overtime to introduce a foolproof system to put the brakes on illegal iron ore transportation in Karnataka.

Besides making fitting the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) to vehicles ferrying minerals mandatory, the government wants to introduce e-system to issue permits (issued by the Mines and Geology Department) from April 20 to check fake permit documents. Forest permits or forest way pass being issued by the Forest Department will continue to be generated manually, said B S Ramprasad, Secretary to the Commerce and Industries Department (Mines).

The existing manual system of issuing permits was misused rampantly to illegally transport minerals, especially iron ore in Bellary district. Large quantities of illegally dug up minerals were smuggled out with fake permits. Under the proposed e-permit system, mineral transporters should apply seeking permits online. The application will have details like quantity of mineral to be transported, destination and vehicle number. Permits will be issued online after verification. Like the manually generated permits, e-permits will have hologram mark.

e-permits also have a provision for issue of bulk permits. The Mines and Geology officials will inspect the stock, and after verification, they will approve transportation of large quantities of minerals in one go. However, the lease holders have to obtain a separate trip sheet for every vehicle transporting minerals.

The Department of Mines and Geology has developed a separate software for the purpose. Every mining lease holder will be given a unique code and a password to access it and apply for permits. The department is presently giving training to all lease holders on using the software. “The government has successfully implemented e-permit system in three lease areas — Tumkur (Mineral Corporation), Chitradurga (Sesa Goa) and Hospet in Bellary (Mysore Minerals Limited). Work is on to put in place necessary infrastructure to extend the system across the State from April 20,” Ramprasad said.

Besides, the government is likely to introduce use of PFID and GPS devices for mine lorries from April 20. The movement of GPS and RFID-fitted lorries will be monitored by computerised check-posts, located at strategic locations. The Government had sought the SC for 15 days’ time to introduce these devices, but the apex court turned it down.

Ramprasad said 13 composite check-posts, involving officials of four government departments — Mines and Geology, Forest, Transport and Home — have been set up across the State. Five composite check-posts are in Uttara Kannada district, three in Bellary, one each in Gadag, Hassan, Bijapur, Chitradurga and Dakshina Kannada. This is over and above the 22 old check-posts functioning in the State.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/152274/curbing-illegal-mining-e-way.html)

Hescom SMSs will alert you on load shedding

HUBLI: Unscheduled load shedding bothering you? Don't fret, for Hubli-Electricity Supply Company (Hescom) will soon start sending SMSs, alerting power consumers about load shedding in their respective areas.

If everything falls in place in the next three months, the consumers of eight districts coming under Hescom will be informed about load shedding or power shut down through SMSs.

At present, the same is being done through press statements. But many consumers feel that this conventional method has failed to keep them properly informed. Following complaints in this regard, Hescom is taking measures to make use of technology and address the issue.

"The feeders supplying power will be computerized, and this will help us assess the quantity of power available in each feeder," said Pankajkumar Pandey, managing director of Hescom.

Tenders have been invited to award the contract of computerization of feeders. SMSs will be sent once all the 1,850 feeders are computerized, which will take at least three months.

Cellphone number will be allotted to the public through the media. "We will allot a common cellphone number for registration. The registered consumers will get SMSs thereon regularly," he added.

A separate IT Cell comprising five computer engineers has been set up to computerize the feeders and to send SMSs.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Hescom-SMSs-will-alert-you-on-load-shedding/articleshow/7917160.cms)

Anybody paying electricity bills by automatic debit payments through bank? There may be many making use of online payment of BESOM through internet.

Is there any plan for automatic debit payment of other bills like water?

Automated Clearing House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Clearing_House)

BangaloreOne (http://www.bangaloreone.gov.in/public/LegalContents.aspx)
Bengaluru One Project - Utility Bill ePayments (http://www.axisbank.com/corporate/govtbusiness/epayments/e-payments.asp)
BESCOM Online Bill Payment (http://www.billdesk.com/Bescom.htm)

John B Monteiro

The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing. — Jean Baptist Colbert.

Members of the public waiting in a queue to pay bills at MangaloreOne counters. Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) far from following Colbert’s advice, seems to revel in inflicting maximum punishment on its tax-paying citizens as reflected in the administration of the so-called self-assessment property tax.

Notwithstanding the pre-election assurance of all parties to resist such a tax in its present form and its sudden imposition need not be an issue now. The need for, and inevitability of, taxation has been for long and well recognised. As Jay Franklin had said long ago, in this world, nothing is sure but death and taxes. And as for expecting reasonable taxes, Edmund Burke had said that to tax and to please as much as to love and be wise is not given to mortals.

So, we have to grin and bear what cannot be avoided. But the burden of taxes can be lightened through thoughtful administration of taxes, especially in its mode of collection.

The term self–assessment has an inviting democratic flavour about it. You are lulled into thinking that you are your own boss; decide what you pay! In practice a raw half-baked temporary inductee, sitting in a bleak, poorly ventilated sub-offices of MCC, like the one I encountered at Kavoor junction, decides what you pay, depending on the off-the-cuff answers you blurt out – with dozens of others jostling you and breathing down your neck. In the result, it is neither self-assessment nor fact-based scientific and rationally derived tax amount.

On the other hand, the self-assessment bit could be a trap as it is possible that at a later date, on the basis of spot inspection, the tax-payer is liable to be penalised for giving wrong data or suppressing data. Such penalty situation has also the potential for blackmail for bribe to regularise the lapse off the record by confirming the original submission. I hear of stories of spot inspectors drilling holes in the walls to ascertain the material used in its construction.

SAS avatar

Now, I will take you through the time and labour one expends in the self-assessment avatar of the tax. You go to the sub-office and get hold of a booklet from a permanent employee of MCC. Then you join a group of a score of persons pushing their way to catch the attention of the (apparently temporary) “writer”. When your turn comes, depending on your jostling power, the person fills in the form that has 10 pages, including the cover jacket.

The person calculates the figures, on the basis of your answers, on a mini-calculator the size of a mobile phone. Then you go to the designated bank, pay the cash and return to the sub-office. The permanent staff stamps the booklet, tares out and returns pages meant for you, and the transaction is over.

The next time around, the same drill continues; but on the basic data is in the copy they issued to you last year. So, the tax can vary for three reasons – allowance of depreciation, as happened last year; increase in the tax rate as happened this year (15%) or increase in the guidance value as is likely to happen in the coming years – in sympathy with rise in real estate prices. But, the form can ask for more information. I, at 73 a senior citizen myself, was also fronting for a more senior citizen of 86 who also has two rented premises. This time around, I had to supply the names of the two tenants and the names of their fathers/husbands. Tenant is a shifting entity and the owner and tax payer is a permanent fixture. How are details of shifty tenants going to make a difference unless MCC is out for irrelevant information overload? Also, after the first year, you have to attach a photocopy of the previous year’s bank payment receipt – perhaps to satisfy MCC that previous payments have been settled.

Punishment?

What does all this translate in terms of punishment to the tax-paying citizen? Take my own outing in the latest instance. I go to the sub office at about 10.30 am. The basic booklet (mercifully free) is not available because, apparently the permanent staff has not arrived. (It now comes out from the proceedings at the Mayor’s meeting with senior citizens at Don Bosco Hall on April14 that these booklets are in short supply). I am advised to come later. I go again at 11 am.

The booklet has come; but there is a jostling crowd. This time around there is an empty chair in front of the writer and I sit on it. But, the writer is bullied by poor ladies who have perhaps to go back and cook lunch for their families or do paid cleaning work for other households. Then there are (apparently) agents or touts, who front for people like me who value their time, who thrust a bunch of booklets and promise to return later. I could not get the attention of the writer for the one hour I sat on the chair. Then, pitying my grey hair, she offers to take my four booklets home and bring them back the next day.

So, the next day the drill repeats and the transaction is over. That brings me to the cost of tax collection.

The cost of collection has to be reasonably low compared to the amount collected. That is why over the years some taxes have been abolished. For instance, India has no estate tax (also dubbed inheritance tax or death duty) now. A tax on transfer of property, financial investment and stakes in companies upon a person’s death was abolished in 1985 as it was not bringing in the expected revenues in relation to the cost of administering it to justify it continuance. In the case of MCC’s self-assessment tax, the cost to it may be negligible because the tax payer bears the cost of Rs 25 charged by the inductee writer for filling up the booklet. In other words the cost is passed on to the tax-payer. That Rs 25 cost is only the tip of the iceberg. The hidden cost to the taxpayer is the monetised cost of the time involved in paying the tax and the transport cost of the tax-payer.

In the corporate sector, employees have an hourly cost which is billed to the client – as in the case of IT companies. It was Rs 1,000 for me when I was at the peak of my career. It does not mean that if you are not formally employed, you have no time cost. There is an opportunity cost. If I write this article, it takes me two hours. If I am paid Rs 400 for this, my hourly opportunity cost is Rs 200. Over two days, I spent 8 hours in paying the MCC tax, making the lost opportunity cost of Rs 1600.

The petrol cost (real) was Rs 150. So, the total cost of tax collection borne by me is Rs 1,775 (including Rs 25 for the writer). The tax paid by me is Rs 1888. Thus the cost of collection works out to about 90% of the tax amount – but it is not borne by the tax collector but by the tax payer. In other words, effective tax paid by me is Rs 3,663.

Can this cost to tax-payer be reduced? Send computerised bill as was sent, six-monthly, before the self-assessment regime. In such an event, a high-cost person like me need not go personally but send a low cost peon in a bus. This is being done for water, electricity and telephone bills. But, MCC will have to do the initial home work like surveying the properties on one-time basis. This has been done in the case of land records, taking the outsourcing route, and now one can get RTCs at the click of a button.

It is a one-time enumeration, like the ten-yearly census work, and developing a user-friendly software.

Officials at the sub-office level rue the current system (or lack of it?) but have no clue on what is being cooked for the future – a poor case of internal communication in MCC.

Finally, the mode of payment: Miscreants broke into MangaloreOne office in MCC headquarters building on MG Road on Sunday (April 10) and decamped with cash of Rs 2.75 lakhs collected from the public through different bill and kept in drawers. It included Rs 55 paid by me, because wrong water bills had been issued by MCC and had to be corrected by a corporation clerk before paying. Hence, I could not pay the bill through a bank – which does not accept defective bills.

The exclusive attachment to cash is reflected in the anonymous epigram: In God we trust; others must pay cash. Another such epigram says: Plenty of people are willing to give god credit, yet few are willing to give him cash. A sign in a restaurant reads: If you are 80 years old and accompanied by your parents, we will cash your check. But, the scenario is now so much changed that the two most beautiful words in English language are: “Cheque enclosed”.

This raises the question as to why not accept cheques for payments for property tax? The world has moved from cash to cheques to credit cards to electronic payment.
Why persist with outmoded method of cash payment, risk robbery and deny tax-payers the choice of payment modes? The telephone department has no problem with cheque payment. Or, is MCC bent on punishing its tax-paying citizens?

“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector?” asked Mark Twain and answered: “The taxidermist takes only the skin”. Chew on this!

DHNS (”http://www.deccanherald.com/content/153888/mccs-self-punishment-tax.html”)

In case of standing order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_order_%28banking%29) to a bank for paying property tax the whole work will be done by the bank of course, with the help of a software which takes care of variables.

What about paying insurance installments?


MCC decides to provide different kind of facilities under 1 roof; Mangalore one centers


A few people may be using automatic debit payment felicity for electricity bills. When this service is extended to other services like water, property tax, etc the queues at MangaloreOne centers, banks, post offices may disappear.
This is usefull if the real public benifit is brought in like:

1. Application for Khata. once we fill the form here it is their responsibility to give us the status through online or though letter( now we go around and aorund to get them no body answer unless we show Currency Notes)

2. RTO License and Smart card

3. Land registration application ( registration can happen once every thing is ok and they give us appointment

4. Land converstion application

Else tax filling etc are all government benifite plans not public benifit.


Yes. We should be able to track status of our application easily. Online status is useful to general public who have internet access. It is time now to move ahead from literacy to computer & internet literacy. It is useful if these webs have also Kannada user interfaces.

Income tax payment could also be done online?

MANGALORE: The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) that has taken steps for total computerisation to improve subscribers and employers, has developed e-return software in order to simplify the filing of various returns by employers. The tool and the user manual, guidelines for filing e-return are available at the EPFO website www.epfindia.gov.in, a press release from T R S Kumar, regional PF commissioner 1, here stated.

Employers of establishments covered under EPF and MP Act should henceforth download the software and file all monthly returns electronically from April 2011 onwards. The annual returns in form number 3A for 2011-12 should also be filed before April 30 using the software along with a hard copy of form number 6A in order to upload the member balance and issue the annual statement of accounts expeditiously to the subscribers.

In case of doubts, employers may contact the public relations officer, EPFO, Highlands on phone: 0824-2432955 for assistance.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/EPFO-facilitates-online-filing-of-returns/articleshow/8067826.cms)

How many EPF offices in Karnatakais computerized and how many arepending to becomputerized?

Bellary: Advance booking of tickets for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses was introduced at the BellaryOne here recently.

The BellaryOne centre was opened here about six months ago.

The centre offers various facilities under one roof, which saves the people from running around to pay certain routine bills. The BellaryOne has already been collecting payments of electricity bills, mobile and landline telephone bills, selling passport application forms, collecting water tax and accepting applications for revaluation of Pre-University answer papers.

Deputy Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas said that the people desirous of booking advance tickets at BellaryOne should produce some proof of identification like passport, PAN card, driving licence, voter identity card or ration card. Except cash, no other mode of payment is accepted at the centre. The BellaryOne centres are located at the Bellary

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/26/stories/2011042660850500.htm)

BallariOndu Zindabad!

What ails Kannada computing? (http://www.hindu.com/2011/04/25/stories/2011042552820900.htm)

Tobacco Board plans to introduce e-auctions soon (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/tobacco-board-plans-to-introduce-e-auctions-soon/434479/)
Bs Reporter / Chennai/ Bangalore May 5, 2011, 0:08 IST
The Tobacco Board is planning to introduce electronic auctions (e-auctions) in Karnataka from 2011-12 across all its auction platforms. The board has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 30 crore for the purpose, a top board official said.

“The purpose of e-auctions is to ensure transparency in the sale and protection of farmers’ interest in the documentation procedure. The board has also decided to install closed circuit (CC) cameras at auction platforms in Karnataka,” G Kamala Vardhana Rao, Chairman, Tobacco Board, told reporters.

He said the board is also setting up three more auction platforms in Karnataka in addition to the 11 existing platforms. The new platforms will be opened in Ramanathapura in Hassan district, H D Kote in Chamarajanagar district and Bettadapura in Mysore district. They will be operational from September 2011 to coincide with the next harvest. The e-auction system would come into effect in Andhra Pradesh from February 2012.
The Tobacco Board is also proposing to impose a heavier penalty on unauthorised tobacco growers this year. “During the last tobacco crop year 2010-11, we saw 28 million kgs of excess production of tobacco in Karnataka. In order to discourage unauthorised cultivation, we are proposing a heavy penalty,” Rao said.

Last year, the board had fixed a crop size of 100 million kgs for Karnataka and 170 million kgs for Andhra Pradesh. But, the production in Karnataka has increased by 28 per cent to 128 million kgs, while it is likely to dip 29 per cent to 120 million kgs in Andhra Pradesh this year. The drop in production there is mainly due to the heavy rains in November and December. Harvesting in Andhra Pradesh is yet to be completed this year, Manju Pillai, director, Karnataka, Tobacco Board, said.

She said the board has fixed a 101.6 million kg target for Karnataka for 2011-12. The saplings are presently being raised at the nursery the year.

In order to control the unauthorised cultivation of tobacco, the board has proposed to levy penalty upwards of 15 per cent for the next crop. “The board sent a proposal to the commerce ministry and is waiting for approval,” she said.

For last year’s crop, the board had fixed 15 per cent on the total sales value and Rs 2 per kg as penalty for excess production for both authorised and unauthorised cultivation. For next year, the board is seeking to levy a differential penalty for unauthorised cultivation, she said.

During 2010-11, India’s tobacco production is estimated at 730 million kgs, of which Flue Cured Variety (FCV) accounts for 270 million kgs.

KMF launches e-marketing of Nandini products

MANGALORE: A whole range of Nandini products, barring milk, could land up at the doorsteps of the netizens of this coastal district in the next three months. The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) which launched this initiative for customers in Bangalore recently, and with success, is all set to usher this for consumers served by Dakshina Kannada Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd (DKMUL), which is in the midst of its silver jubilee year celebrations.

Making this announcement at the silver jubilee celebration of DKMUL here on Sunday, the chairman of KMF G Somasekhara Reddy said the e-marketing initiative of KMF has really taken off well in Bangalore since its launch. "We will introduce this facility within the next three months for the consumers in Mangalore and Udupi districts," he said, adding that one could order for all products of KMF marketed under the Nandini brand except for milk.

Noting that it has been a profitable time for farmers into dairying activities ever since the BJP government took over the state, Reddy said farmers are receiving anywhere from Rs 18 to Rs 20 per litre of milk sold by them through their milk producers cooperative societies to their respective milk unions. "The special incentive of Rs 2 per litre given to dairy farmers is a first initiative of its kind in India and we have disbursed Rs 800 crore to farmers," he said.

Taking a dig at his detractors who questioned his ability to run a milk federation given that he comes from a family into mining business, Reddy said the profit of KMF when he took over was Rs 7 crore. Today, it is Rs 30.10 crore, he said, adding the federation's turnover has surged from Rs 3,105 crore to Rs 5,080 crore. "It is my endeavour to see that the turn over of KMF reaches Rs 8,000 crore over the next couple of years," Somasekhara Reddy added.

The KMF has also set itself a target of procuring 50 lakh litres per day and milk producers unions in the state have been given their targets to help KMF reach its target, he said. The move to enter in to a MoU with Campco to manufacture and market Nandini brand of chocolates too has been a success. The Readers' Digest has given a certificate that this brand of chocolate is the best among milk chocolates, he said, adding that KMF has sold 15 tonnes of this chocolate so far.

Reddy also held out hope to daily wage employees with the milk unions and said all those who have worked for more than 10-15 years would be made permanent against their posts. Although they do not have the technical degrees, they have gained expertise in their area after working there for the past decade and more, he said, adding that the milk unions would go in for fresh recruitments only after dealing with the issue of these daily wage employees.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/KMF-launches-e-marketing-of-Nandini-products/articleshow/8199558.cms)

Pay commercial taxes online in Karnataka (http://www.inewsone.com/2011/05/12/pay-commercial-taxes-online-in-karnataka/49997)

Bangalore, May 12 (IANS) The Karnataka government, in association with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Thursday unveiled an electronic payment (e-payment) and reconciliation system for commercial tax payers in the state.
Touted to be the first of its kind in the country, the system will enable businesses and dealers to remit commercial taxes online anytime, anywhere.
The central bank plans to adopt the e-payment system in other states after evaluating the pilot project in this southern state.
Currently, six state-run banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India have been connected to the system for remitting taxes.
‘Going forward, more state-run and private banks will join the system so that more payers can make use of it to help curb tax evasion,’ Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said on the occasion here.
RBI deputy governor Shyamala Gopinath also unveiled the e-payment reconciliation system that will enable commercial tax payers to reconcile their accounts with the government treasury seamlessly through the portal.
The state’s commercial tax department processes about 100,000 cheques a month through its offices across the state, mobilising about Rs.2,000 crore a month on average.
‘The e-payment system will not only enable dealers to remit instantly, but also eliminates inherent delays present in the conventional system, as cheques had to be processed by banks and remitted to the treasury account,’ finance department’s Principal Secretary L.V. Nagarajan said.
Thanking the RBI for selecting Karnataka to introduce the system, the chief minister said the online portal would increase the compliance rate on the part of tax payers and improve tax collections, which has shown a healthy trend.
‘The e-payment system will ensure transparency and improve efficiency in the tax department to mobilise more resources,’ Yeddyurappa added.

Karnataka is first to introduce e-payment of commercial taxes
Bangalore, May 12, DHNS:

Karnataka on Thursday became the first State in the country to put in place a comprehensive e-payment system for remittance of commercial taxes.

The e-payment system of the Commercial Taxes Department (CTD) was launched by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in the presence of RBI officials and representatives of public sector banks.

The system enables dealers having Internet accounts to remit their commercial taxes, including Value-added Tax (VAT), Karnataka Sales Tax, Central Sales Tax, Entry Tax and Professional Tax from anywhere. Shortly, the system would be extended to include Luxury Tax, Entertainment Tax and Betting Tax.

Six banks have been enabled to participate in the system, including State Bank of India, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Hyderabad, Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India.

CTD officials said more than one lakh cheques a month are received by various offices of the department and these are sent to the agency bank that processes them and remits the amount to the government account. The process involved a huge amount of manual work and delay in realisation of the amount. With the e-payment system in place, dealers can make remittances anywhere, anytime. The reconciliation process is automatic and cases of missing transaction will be eliminated. The officials said the payment of all taxes would be made mandatory for a specified category through e-payment shortly.

Each day at 8 pm, the participating banks which have received the remittances from the tax payers will upload the transaction files with transaction details to the RBI web. RBI, Bangalore will download the files and process them. The transactions will be uploaded by the RBI to the reconciliation website of the CTD.

http://mybangalore.smugmug.com/photos/919676447_vhnD4-O.jpg


According to authorities at the Department of e-Governance the people can avail the service at BangaloreOne centres in Divyashree Chambers, R T Nagar, Vijayanagar and BDA complex at Banashankari 2nd stage. The service will also be initiated at KarnatakOne centres at Mysore, Davangere, Tumkur, Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Shimoga, Bellary, Belgaum and Gulbarga.

This service was unsuccessful initially due to a number of technical problems such as the tickets had more than one PNR (Passenger Name Record) number on tickets and cancellations did not get registered in the IRCTC server. But now that the department of e-governance has joined hands with ‘Via’ Travel Company which also offers an online booking service, reservations have been made easy, feasible and fast.

mybangalore (http://www.mybangalore.com/article/0511/hit-the-bangaloreone-centres-to-book-railway-tickets.html)

US Army's supply chain method for village entrepreneurs


MUMBAI: Siddaramappa Maranabasari, a 29-year-old chemist in Karnataka's Gadag district could never afford a pricey software solution used by large companies to track their products, inventory and forecast demand from customers, but his challenges are not too different from those big enterprises. In fact, a rural supply chain, because of lack of proper infrastructure and at times insufficient supply of electricity, is far more complex and challenging to manage than those in the cities.

The problem for chemists in remote districts like Gadag is to ensure that medicines are stocked well and can be offered during emergencies. Unfortunately, chemists such as Maranabasari had to wait for an emergency before reaching out to a distributor for life saving drugs, losing precious many hours for medicines to arrive.

Maranabasari found answers to his challenges in a solution used by the US army in its Global Combat Support System (GCSS), originally developed by Anup Akkihal, an Indian born in West Virginia. Along with several other chemists in the district, Maranabasari has to pay Rs 100 every month for a software solution that tracks demand, sales and movement of drugs - all on a simple to use handset that does not need any fancy technology.

"I need to brush up on it and need to get back to using it because it is really useful for me and has a lot of potential. I plan to take time out every night and learn to use it again," Maranabasari says.

Akkihal, a post graduate in logistics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , found his inspiration to develop the software while working on a US Army project with defence contractor Northrop Grumman during July 2006.

"While working for the US defence, I realised why don't I try and apply the same hi-tech system to mobile as I realised that military fronts are similar to villages," says the 37-year-old Akkihal who hails from Dharwad in Karnataka. He along with his team, worked with local chemists to develop a solution that could solve their problems in a simple, effective way.

The solution developed by Akkihal, who sells the software through his firm Logistimo, is now gaining traction and holds potential for solving supply chain management problems faced by many village entrepreneurs in the country, experts say. Logistimo's solution is finding takers in remote villages and districts of Africa.

For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) uses Logistimo's technology to track the vaccines meant for the immunization drive in Tunisia since most regions there are not well connected to internet and were looking for some technology that would do it with the mobiles.

"There was a pipeline of vaccines which were to be sent but were creating supply chain challenges. There was no real way of understanding where the vaccines were. And Logistimo does exactly that. And it is relatively cheap in terms of technology.

In public health, information system is a critical piece and we are seeing the difference already and this is very exciting work just beginning to get explored," said Patrick Lyndon, health economist at WHO. Around 140 chemists, 120 of them part of a closed-study group, were a part of the research that began in January 2009 and went on till end of the year.

ET (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/us-armys-supply-chain-method-for-village-entrepreneurs/articleshow/8686339.cms)

Nice..

http://i51.tinypic.com/2ew3968.jpg
-- Hosadigantha

http://i54.tinypic.com/s6iole.jpg
-- Hosadigantha

http://i53.tinypic.com/n6xbaf.jpg

* This eliminates physical transfer of applications from one office to another

— PHOTO: R. ESWARRAJ
2011060459040100_files/2011060459040101.jpg
E-governance:The terminal at the Police Commissioner's office in Mangalore that has been connected to the Passport Office.

MANGALORE: Physical transfer of passport applications to the police has been eliminated with the setting up of a direct online link with the passport office here, reducing the time taken for processing applications.

Commissioner of Police Seemant Kumar Singh told The Hindu on Friday that the computer terminal had been set up that very day.

This would eliminate the process of physically transferring the applications from the passport office to the police stations concerned for verification and back.

Applications would be sent to the commissioner's office from where it would be directed to the station concerned. After verification, the digital signature of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) would clear the application on behalf of the Police Commissioner, Mr. Singh said. Applications would be returned to the passport office online.
Mr. Singh said that as it was a new unit, the passport office in Bangalore had to assign a new digital signature for the office here.

Because of the delay in setting up the computer terminal, 1,000 applications were pending with the Police Commissioner for verification.

However, Mr. Singh could not say by how much time clearance could be speeded up.

He said it would depend on the police station concerned. Police stations such as Mulky and Konaje outside the city received very few applications, whereas Mangalore North police station receives 50 on single a day.

Ten officers will operate the terminal in rotation under the charge of the DCP Law and Order. The post is vacant at present.

The Hindu ("")

State data centre launched
(http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/state-data-centre-launched/720491.html)
PTI | 04:06 PM,Jun 09,2011
Bangalore, Jun 9 (PTI) A Rs 57-crore data centre designed to meet requirements of Karnataka government for the next decade was set up here today. The centre will offer latest technologies including virtualisation and provide the servers on demand to various department of the government to facilitate e-initiatives. The centre will host e-governance initiatives such as Unique ID, Registration Department, Transport Department, Municipal Administration, e-procurement. It is being maintained by Tata Consultancy Service. Speaking on the occasion, S P Singh, Director, Union Ministry of IT lauded the e-initiatives of Karnataka government and the effective implementation of the programmes in the state. He said Karnataka could prove to be torch bearer for other other states to follow suit. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said that the implementation of the e-governance programme had helped in speedy implementation of government projects. He said the UID programme which was launched in Karnataka has so far seen enrolment of 4.5 million people. Karnataka was leading in the country as far as e-governace was concerned, he said. There were also plans to connect prisons in the state to courts to facilitate justice delivery system and to reduce the transporting of undertrials to and fro, an official said. PTI JD MSR RC

Online property registration to be extended across Karnataka
(http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_online-property-registration-to-be-extended-across-karnataka_1552912)
Published: Thursday, Jun 9, 2011, 12:35 IST
Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

In an effort to put an end to corruption in sub-registrar offices, the government is mulling over introducing online registration of properties all over the state.

Currently, only in nine sub-registrar offices under Gandhinagar division in Bangalore have the facility running on an experimental basis. Riding over the success of the pilot project, the stamps and registration department is now planning to extend it throughout the state.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, minister for revenue Karunakara Reddy said, “The online registration of property in Gandhinagar division is a huge success. Due to the system, corruption complaints have come down. Now we have ordered to develop software to extend the system into all the sub-registrar offices in the state. It takes time, but we will introduce the system in all the centres at the earliest.”

Reddy said once the system comes into effect, corruption can be eliminated in the sub-registrar offices across the state. A resident of Jayanagar can get his property registered at Bellary or any other place of his choice, he said.

Currently, one can register the property only in the same jurisdictional registration office. Karnataka is the first state to introduce online registration of properties.

Reddy said the state government was taking all steps to develop Nemmadi Kendras. “Because of power cuts most of the Kendras are facing problems in distributing land records to the public. To speed up the work, the government has planned to give laptops and install solar system at centres,” said Reddy.

^^
State data centre launched by CM

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/9655/57904790.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/695/57904790.jpg/)

Source:- sanjevani

Tracking system to be launched
Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/12/stories/2011061251370500.htm)

Bangalore: The Labour Department, in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation, is launching web-based child labour tracking system in all 30 districts of Karnataka to monitor the progress of rescued child workers. Joint Labour Commissioner, Jinkalappa, said that software has been developed and computers installed in all districts at a cost of Rs. 70 lakh.

“Staff training is on and it will be operational by the end of the month,” he said. The system records the entire profile of the child and his family which will go into the State database, so that he or she can be tracked anywhere in the State, said Mr. Jinkalappa.

May 30, 2011, 07:05 PM IST
Aadhaar Presents A Plethora Of Opportunities For India Inc
BY ANAND RAI
The UID project will initiate numerous opportunities in IT services, biometrics, credit profiling among other areas.

While Karnataka government has taken a somewhat slow approach towards UID enrolment, Maharashtra has started the initiative in right earnest and begun the enrolment process in all the 34 districts. Till date, Andhra Pradesh has started enrolment in six districts. A total of 7.1 million Aadhaar letters have already been issued and twice the amount of data is being processed.
Source (http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/aadhaar-presents-a-plethora-of-opportunities-for-india-inc)

Why Karnataka is slow on UID?

x-post.
Paperless system in Udupi DC office soon


District-in-Charge Minister Dr V S Acharya said that Udupi Deputy Commissioner’s office will soon be the first office in the State to become the paperless office.

Addressing a press meet, he said paperless system will be implemented in Assistant Commissioner’s office and three taluk offices in a phased manner. The Udupi DC office complex will be inaugurated on August 19 by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa at Manipal End Point. Foundation stone will be laid for the Udupi circuit house on June 20. A sum of Rs 2.50 crore has been released for the Kundapur AC office and the work will commence at the earliest. The indoor stadium at Ajjarakadu has been renovated at the cost of Rs 2.55 crore and will be inaugurated soon.

Dr Acharya said Swarna 2nd stage drinking water programme enabled 24 hours water supply in Udupi taluk. Similarly in Kundapur, water from Varahi River was used to provide water in the taluk. Multi Village water scheme to provide drinking water in rural areas have been undertaken at the cost of Rs 25 crore.

Police stations

Dr Acharya said rural police stations are built at Amasebailu, Kollur and Ajakaru areas under Naxal special package programme. As many as 20 ASPs have been recruited in the district besides five emergency police units “Hoysala” have been sanctioned to the district along with three interceptors for vigilance, he added.

Community health centres at Byndoor and Kota are being built at the cost of Rs 3.29 crore.

Tourism

Dr Acharya said Rs two crore has been sanctioned to develop “Pajaka Kshetra” under new tourism initiatives taken up by the government. The work on III phase of Malpe harbour has been started. Koderi jetti has been renovated at the cost of Rs 30 crore. Development works have been taken up in Marvanthe at the cost of Rs 76.80 lakhs, he added.


© DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/168618/paperless-system-udupi-dc-office.html)

Land transactions go online in Karnataka to check delays
(http://www.inewsone.com/2011/06/24/land-transactions-go-online-in-karnataka-to-check-delays/58650)
Tumkur (Karnataka), June 24 (IANS) Sale and purchase of land in Karnataka went online Friday with the computerisation of the transaction process in Tumkur district.
‘By integrating Bhoomi software, which has all land records in the state online with Kaveri software that registers sale or purchase of lands, title deeds will be delivered online to citizens and spare them from delays and middlemen,’ state Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy said unveiling the latest e-governance initiative of the IT-savvy government.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the state’s Bhoomi e-governance project, the state revenue department has introduced a short messaging service (SMS) alert service to keep sellers and buyers of lands, including farmlands posted on the mutation status of the transaction process.
‘Integration of the twin process (Bhoomi & Kaveri) will reduce hardships and land related litigations farmers and other land owners face, as registration of a sale deed will be done only by using the Bhoomi database,’ Reddy said at the public function here, about 70 km from India’s tech hub.
When the ambitious online project is rolled out across the state in 30 districts covering 176 taluks over the next nine months, all citizens, including farmers and owners of non-agriculture lands do not have to frequent the local sub-registrar office after they register online to sell or buy a land that is in the Bhoomi database under the rights, tenancy and crop certificate (RTC).
‘Once the land price is arrived at, a seller or a buyer will get SMS alerts from the sub-registrar office on the status of the registration process, which involves 10 steps, including verification by the village accountant, notification, calling for objections and legal position of the title deed,’ revenue secretary Rajeev Chawla said on the occasion.
‘This unique initiative, a first of its kind in the country, will prevent fraudulent transactions hereafter. The fool-proof transaction process will also prevent the same land being sold to others, eliminate delays and check corruption,’ Reddy asserted.
As a repository of land records across the state, Bhoomi has 20 million records of private and public lands measuring 192,000 sq km.

Soon Karnataka can book its property from anywhere (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_soon-karnataka-can-book-its-property-from-anywhere_1558896)

Come August 15 (Independence Day), a beginning will be made to enable you to register your property from any of the 203 sub-registrars’ offices in the state, irrespective of the location of the property. The revenue department is all set to integrate the sub-registrar offices (which have been automated already) in Karnataka; this would help in the speedy execution of property registration processes.

The revenue department will link five sub-registrar offices in Bangalore, which are yet to be identified, from where the service will begin from August 15. Revenue minister G Karunakara Reddy on Friday said that in a month's time, the integration would be extended to all the 43 sub-registrar offices in Bangalore. All the sub-registrar offices in Karnataka will be networked within nine months.

“For the user, the benefit would be to get the property registration done, no matter which part of the city or the state he or she is living in. All you need to process is the necessary documents,” he said.

In the current system of property registration, you have to get the property registration and other tasks done only in the sub-registrar’s office under whose jurisdiction the property is located. With the integration of the sub-registrar offices in place, a property owner in Koramangala, can get his property registered in Gandhinagar, or for that matter, even in Gulbarga or any corner of Karnataka. This will be brought under the Urban Properties Ownership Records (UPOR) project in the days to come.

“This is already being run as a pilot project in the five cities of Karnataka — Mysore, Mangalore, Bellary, Shimoga and Hubli-Dharwad. With digitalised documents and land records available with the department, the new scheme will ensure that the records are not bogus,” said the minister.

He said speeding up of land registrations in the urban areas is the need of the hour as 60% of the total land registrations in Karnataka take place in urban centres. Encumbrance details The revenue department secretary (Bhoomi and UPOR), Rajeev Chawla, said the project, in future, will also provide information on whether there are any encumbrances including court litigations and bank loans to the properties, which would help buyers verify the legitimacy of their purchases.

“The department will also introduce booking system for registrations so that they know precisely what time they can visit the sub-registrar office to get their jobs done faster,” he said.

http://i55.tinypic.com/2vjygqh.jpg

e-SUVEGA will start from 01-07-2011 which allows transporters to get Transit Pass from the internet site http://ctax.kar.nic.in

http://i51.tinypic.com/2eq9qn4.jpg
-- Udayavani

KVG Engineering College, Sulya students have developed an m-governance database application with details of bloodbanks and doners. Any one wanting a particular blood group can send a mobile phone message to the information and control center and find out stock status of the particular blood group in nearby blood banks. If the blood group is not available then doners will get the message.

:banana::banana:

A few of medicines are not available in every shop. It could be useful to have a similar system to find out whether a medicine is available in a medical shop?

* Most of Karnataka will be covered by March 2012

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/25/images/2011062552330501.jpg
— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Vasumitra (sitting, right), Postmaster General, Karnataka Circle; P. Raghavan (second from right), Chief General Manager, Karnataka Telecom Circle; Ashok Dalwai, Deputy Director-General of the Unique Identification of India (standing, right), at the launch of UID Enrolment-AADHAAR at the General Post Office in Bangalore on Friday.

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/25/images/2011062552330502.jpg

Bangalore: With 85 per cent of enrolment for Unique Identity (UID) in Mysore and Tumkur completed, the stage is now set for starting the process in Gulbarga and Belgaum divisions by the end of this month, said Ashok Dalwai, Deputy Director-General of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Speaking at the launch of India Post's tie-up with UIDAI for the enrolment process here on Friday, he said that the target is to cover “nearly the entire population” of the State by March, 2012.

He said that large-scale enrolment in Bangalore will begin in about a month, with the tender process currently on.

In post offices

Even as enrolments in a sweep across the State will happen in a phased way, people in Bangalore and other parts of Karnataka can walk into any of the 236 identified post offices and enrol themselves. Nine of these post offices are in Bangalore.

Nearly 18 lakh people in Karnataka have been given Aadhar numbers, while 40 lakh have enrolled for UID. Starting in October, the target all over India will be to enrol one million people a day.

Social inclusion

Mr. Dalwai said that social inclusion is the biggest strength of the UID project, with the process being biometric-based rather than demographic-based.

Aadhar can be the anchor for service-delivery system, which will mean a paradigm shift in the entire administrative domain by bringing in transparency.

Token system

Vasumitra, Postmaster General, said that people can walk into the identified post offices for enrolment.

With each enrolment taking about 10 minutes, they are contemplating issuing tokens for people who wish to register.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/25/stories/2011062552330500.htm)

Laiqh A. Khan

* Better to fill applications online earlier and log on at 8 a.m.

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/18/images/2011061863420301.jpg

BANGALORE: Ever tried logging on to get your appointment at the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK)? If you're a late riser, chances are you won't make it. For, the appointment slots at the two PSKs in Bangalore are exhausted within the first 15 minutes of their release online at 8 a.m. every day.

“Though the two PSKs handle about 2,150 appointments a day, the slots at PSK on Lalbagh Road are taken up within the first 5 to 10 minutes of their release every morning, while the slots at the PSK on Marathahalli Outer Ring Road are taken within 15 minutes,” K.J. Srinivasa, Regional Passport Officer, Bangalore, told The Hindu.

Public-private initiative

Ever since the inauguration of two PSKs in Bangalore as part of the Passport Seva Project, a public-private initiative between External Affairs Ministry and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), passport applicants in the city and many parts of the State have been seeking recourse to the Passport Seva Project's online portal www.passport.gov.in to apply for a fresh passport or for renewal.

Though many District Passport Centres still accept hardcopies of passport applications, the post offices and BangaloreOne centres have stopped accepting the applications. A large number of passport applicants, who fill their application online, face difficulties in securing an appointment at the PSK.

According to log details, Mr. Srinivasa said, the appointments at the two PSKs in Bangalore are snapped up within minutes of their release while the slots at Mangalore and Hubli PSKs last a little longer.

What you can do

“Hence, applicants seeking appointments at PSKs, particularly the ones located in Bangalore, should finish filling the applications online earlier and log on to the website at 8 a.m. sharp to secure appointment slots.”

The appointments released at 8 a.m. every day pertain to slots at PSKs for the next day. “If an applicant wants to visit the PSK on Wednesday, he or she should secure an appointment slot at 8 a.m. on Tuesday,” he said.

However, it has also come to the notice of the Regional Passport Office that Internet connections with a higher bandwidth are succeeding in securing appointment slots much easier than the rest.

Referring to complaints that a large number of appointment slots are cornered by agents, Mr. Srinivasa said the Regional Passport Office was trying to ascertain the number of slots taken by a single IP address to check the menace. “Talks are on to restrict the maximum number of appointments per IP address to two or four,” he said.

Absentees

Mr. Srinivasa said about 35 per cent of the applicants don't turn up at the PSKs even after securing an appointment.

Of the 3,215 appointments released for the four PSKs across the State, only about 2,400 applicants turn up. “We are trying to find out the reason for this,” he said.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/18/stories/2011061863420300.htm)

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/21/images/2011062159540201.jpg
HELPING HAND:The project will be tested soon and the feedback incorporated.

Bangalore: As a part of their centenary celebrations, IBM joined hands with Retina India, an organisation for persons with retinal impairment, to create a technology portal to help visually challenged students.

This portal will help blind students find suitable volunteers to write their exams and to read books and other study material for them.

Mamta Sharma, IBM's head of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for South Asia, launched a prototype of the portal last week in the city.

Amit Sharma, Chief Operating Officer, IBM India, announced a grant from IBM to Retina India.

“We are positive that a database will connect visually challenged persons across the country with their potential reader or scribe. It will be a huge help to the students who lose much time trying to find volunteers. This project is an example of how our technology support can create the change at grassroots level,” he said.

Big help

Arvind Bhartiya, Trustee of Retina India, said lack of scribes are an obstacle to visually challenged students preparing for exams.

The Hindu (http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/21/stories/2011062159540200.htm)

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/07/08/20110708x_002100004.jpg

BANGALORE: In an effort to improve and enhance weather mapping capabilities, Bangalore Meteorological Centre, India Meteorological Department (IMD), under its modernisation project is installing about 100 Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG) and two Doppler Weather Radars (DWR) across the state."By the end of 2011, we are planning to install about 100 ARGs across the State. The ARG station collects data and processes the same in a data logger, which is linked up with the INSAT3A satellite from where every hour the data will be transferred to IMD Laboratory in Pune. From the laboratory the data will be sent to the forecasting centres across the country on hourly basis. The data recorded will be realtime," said B Puttanna, Director, Bangalore Meteorological Centre, IMD.Speaking to Express about the advantages of ARG for the public he said, "The idea behind installing these automatic gauges is to avoid delay in gathering data. It will help to gather data every hour from remote and inaccessible areas, which otherwise takes a couple of days."He said that in addition to collecting rainfall data, the station can also be equipped to collect information regarding temperature and humidity.The other advantage of ARGs for the IMD is that it reduces the number of manpower for its operation. "The only maintenance involved is keeping the surroundings of the station clear and free of grass and other such natural elements," Puttanna said. The IMD is aiming to set up 2,000 such stations across the country by the end of 2011.Meanwhile, setting up of two DWRs providing roundtheclock automatic observation of cloud mass and rain patches with update in every 10 minutes in the state are also on its way. Puttanna said, "One DWR will be installed at Hesaraghatta in Bangalore and another one at Mangalore."The DWR will be a boon for farmers, who will not have to look to the sky for rains and clouds, he added."The DWRs are more advanced than the conventional radar, he said. It will pick up more accurate information about the turbulence and wind speed of the atmosphere within nearly 500 km radius before a cyclone.

IBN (http://ibnlive.in.com/news/met-centre-to-improve-weather-mapping/167923-60-115.html)

BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) is planning to install an online real time monitoring system to check air pollution in 15 districts across the state in a phased manner.The initiative is aimed at identifying and mitigating pollution levels across the state, said Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Chairman A S Sadashiviah. He said, "For the installation of equipment, we are finalising the districts based on the pollution level. In the first phase we will be installing the systems at Bellary, Mangalore, Chitradurga, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Mysore and Tumkur.""The other districts will be finalised later and taken up in the second and third phases depending on the requirement," explained."This system will be in the lines of the two similar systems which are currently functioning at the city railway station and Basveswaranagar at Bangalore," he added.Speaking about the working of the system, Sadashivaiah said, "Analysers for major pollutants like sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) will be installed. All the four analysers will work on different principles and represented pollution content graphically.""Once the major polluting elements and particulates are identified, we can specifically put a check on it. This way we can reduce the level of pollution," the chairman of the Pollution Control Board observed.

IBN (http://ibnlive.in.com/news/kspcb-to-install-pollution-monitoring-system/168365-60-119.html)

Mysore, July 21 (RK&KMC)- e-seva at 15 major temples (online booking of various religious services) coming under Mysore division, a first of its kind in the State, was launched by the Revenue and Muzrai Minister Karunakar Reddy, at the Regional Commissioner’s office in city this morning.

Speaking on the occasion, Reddy explained that the Muzrai Department had classified the main temples in Mysore division as A and B categories, comprising 50 and 129 temples respectively.

Of them, 14 major temples like the Chamundeshwari Temple, Kollooru Mookambika temple, Talacauvery, Sri Ranganathaswamy temple, etc. have been linked with a website through which devotees can not only get information about the temple’s festivals and annual events like Rathotsava, Theppotsava etc. but can also make online bookings of puja sevas and make payments through credit cards.

The portal will also provide information about routes, boarding and lodging facilities, travel, places of interest, etc.

e-jamabandi

Reddy, who arrived here at around 11 am, also launched several new programmes relating to the Revenue Department, like e-jamabandi (computerised land records which can be accessed by the Village Accountants and issue land documents on the spot), consolidated RTC (41.65 lakh khathas have been computerised), court cases monitoring system (20,000 cases have been computerised), record room filing system (80 lakh files have been computerised) and several other novel computerisation pragrammes involving Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Kodagu, Chikkamagalur, Mangalore and Udupi districts.

Udupi Deputy Commissioner Reju, Chamarajanagar DC K. Amar Narayan, Chikkamagalur DC K.P. Honakeri, Deputy Director of Land Records of all districts, Muzrai Assistants, Executive Officers of all Muzrai temples and others were present.

SoM (http://www.starofmysore.com/main.asp?type=news&item=29063)

Culprit can be caught using zoom-in to note down the number plate

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00738/29mnans_CCTV_camera_738061e.jpg
KEEPING A CLOSE WATCH: A police personnel monitors a busy traffic junction at the control room in Mangalore on Friday. — PHOTO: R. ESWARRAJ
By installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, the Mangalore City Comissionerate plans to kill three birds with a single shot.

Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told The Hindu that the CCTV infrastructure would immediately aid traffic management and help to check crime within a specified range, but the police planned to use the mechanism to check violations of traffic laws in the city.

Mr. Singh said the city had been divided into two zones primarily: commercial areas and entry points into the city especially from Kerala and Udupi.

According to the survey carried out in the planning stage, ideally, Mangalore City Commissionerate limits should have at least 100 cameras with 360 degree vision and zoom-in capability. This would cost the police department around Rs. 6 crore as one camera costs between Rs. 60,000 and Rs. 80,000. Although he declined to disclose the exact number decided upon, Mr. Singh said some cameras had been installed in commercial areas of the city and the trial was on.

As far as possible and considering the geography and infrastructure of the city, each camera would be positioned to “see” from the point where the adjacent camera's vision “ends”. Each camera had clear vision of about 200 metres. Cameras would transmit data to the control room through wireless transmitters,Mr. Singh said.

The infrastructure consists of cameras, towers for transmitters, the server which will store one month's data, and one monitor for six cameras. When the full-fledged unit is set up, eight police personnel would be required to monitor it round the clock. An officer of the rank of sub-inspector would be deputed to head the team.

Although the system would be immediately used to detect traffic jams and aid traffic management during festive occasions and rallies, eventually the city police would integrate the system with the Regional Transport Office to penalise traffic law violators.

Mr. Singh said offences could be monitored in real-time and traffic police could be alerted about the offence over the wireless.

Even if the culprit could not be apprehended immediately, the traffic police could zoom-in to note down the registration number and obtain vehicle owner's address from the RTO and take action accordingly.

Mr. Singh said the police would write to public sector units and IT companies to set up CCTV cameras (at their own expense) at entry points into their premises in such a way that those cameras could monitor public areas.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2307592.ece)

x-post.


MANGALORE: Police unit heads in Dakshina Kannada need not grope in the dark to know where their deployment vehicles are.

Thanks to the modernization of police force scheme, city police chief and Dakshina Kannada superintendent of police will know where these vehicles are located at the click of a button and redeploy them to nearest action spot. These vehicles will now be fitted with automatic vehicle locator system (AVLS ) based on GPS platform.

While vehicles of Dakshina Kannada district policing unit will get AVLS within the next 15 days, city police unit vehicles would have to wait for a month to get this modern equipment.

"The value of this equipment is time-tested and served us well during the recent elections in Kerala, where we knew the exact location of our vehicles deployed there," noted Ashit Mohan Prasad, additional DGP (communication, logistic and modernization).

In the city on a day-long official visit, where he reviewed the progress achieved under police modernization scheme in city police and DK policing units, Prasad told TOI on Wednesday that hitherto senior police officials randomly directed police vehicles to the scene. Now, they can deploy the nearest police vehicle and this would ensure faster police presence in case of law and order situations or any other emergencies, he pointed.

Nodal officer in the state for police modernization scheme, Prasad said, "Karnataka state police has taken a conscious decision to equip all their deployment vehicles, especially those of the KSRP and district armed reserve with AVLS. The end aim of the modernization thrust is to ensure that every police constable in all policing units has communication equipment with them, and police response time to situations is reduced drastically."
http://profile.cc.fbcdn.net/hprofile-cc-snc4/203491_26781952138_8365597_q.jpg (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Police-jeeps-will-have-hi-fi-touch/articleshow/9476215.cms)

Wonder whether the GPS can be used to find out whether police vehicles are parked properly or illegally on footpath. If GPS has enough space resolution ability then this may be possible. In Mangaluru, the Police in competition with the others violate the parking rule on footpath.

On the other hand Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is also used for detecting overspeeding, illegal parking, congestion pricing, etc in countries which have well developed ITS (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, etc). But, I think in Mysuru ITS will be used only for buses with features like Operational and Maintenance Specification Fleet Management System (Route Planning, etc), Automatic Vehicle tracking system, Electronic Fare Collection, Real-time Passenger Information System, Traffic Management (ATCS), Incident and Emergency Management System, etc. In Bengaluru metro will have many ITS features and a few buses are already having some display elements but how well ITS of metro will be integrated with ITS of bus transportation is not known to me. It looks neither in Mysuru nor in Bengaluru personal vehicles are part of ITS. No idea whether police vehicles form a part of Incident and Emergency Management System. What is more important is how easily the ITS systems, currently under installation, could be enhanced to incorporate other features and modes of transportation. Ultimately we need super integration of ITS in cities with each other and also with highways. A driver should be able to run his vehicle in any city and in any highway with the same ITS gadgets mounted in it and the same type of keyboard/display should be available everywhere. Mostly so called service-oriented architecture could enable this.

* The project is aimed at ensuring that the subsidy reaches the customer

The pilot project to distribute domestic LPG cylinders based on the Aadhaar number, to facilitate direct disbursement of subsidy to the customer, would start in Mysore in three months.

“The pilot project, named ‘Transfer of LPG Subsidy through Aadhaar Authentication' will initially cover three distributors and about 80,000 LPG customers,” sources in Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., which is the coordinating oil company for Karnataka, told The Hindu .

Based on the outcome of the pilot project, the Government will decide on extending the scheme to all distributors and customers in Mysore and other parts of the State wherever Aadhaar enrolment is complete, sources added. As a prelude, collection of required data has begun. Along with the fingerprints of the LPG customers, fingerprints of members of subscribers' families too are being collected. The database of a particular customer and members of his family would be pooled.

This is to ensure delivery of LPG cylinder even in the absence of the customer at the time of delivery. Also, the scheme is aimed at eliminating the misuse and diversion of domestic LPG for other purposes, the sources said.

The mechanism of LPG distribution under Aadhaar number is simple. The dealer will send the delivery boy to the customer who has booked a refill. The delivery boy will carry a “point-of-sale” device. The customer has to authenticate his fingerprint through the device before getting the delivery. In the absence of the customer, members of his family could authenticate the delivery. In this way, it is ensured that the beneficiary receives the cylinder.

Though the scheme aims at transferring the LPG subsidy directly to the customer's bank account, at first, cylinders will be delivered at subsidised prices only, the sources said. Once the system stabilises and customers become accustomed to it, they would have to pay the prevailing market price upon delivery even as the subsidy is directly credited to their bank account. After the recent Rs. 50-increase in domestic LPG cylinders, the subsidy being paid for domestic cylinder is about Rs. 270 (on Friday's prevailing international prices). Regarding the proposal to limit subsidised cylinders to four or six a year, or limiting the supply to those with annual income of less than Rs. 6 lakh, is still at the discussion stage, the sources said.

In the event of any customer not having Aadhaar within the selected LPG dealers, IOC has decided to open facilitation centres at the dealership to help them secure Aadhaar numbers, the sources said.

• Pilot project to cover 80,000 customers
• Customer has to authenticate fingerprint


The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2329515.ece)

Anisha Sheth


A land survey of the city – the first since 1965 – which would have detected fraudulent transactions and provided urban property owners with a valid document of their holdings has come to a standstill in the city.

Mangalore is one of the five cities in which the Urban Property Ownership Record project is being implemented on a pilot basis through public-private partnership.

Speaking to The Hindu , Deputy Director for Land Records B.K. Kusumadhara said that although the survey was supposed to be completed within a year of its commencement in December 2009, the firm which had won the contract had “shut shop” two months ago.

Deputy Commissioner N.S. Channappa Gowda said that this left the city survey in limbo. The Department of Survey and Settlement of Land Records may cancel the contract and begin the process afresh, he said.

Significance

Explaining the significance of the Property Registration Cards which would be issued to each urban property once the survey was completed and records verified, Mr. Kusumadhara said that the card would be a “conclusive record” of ownership of urban property, equivalent to a Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops document for agricultural land.

Presently, he said, “a property is yours only as long as someone comes along and disputes it”. However, the Property Registration Cards will be issued to the owner of each property “after due inquiry into disputes” and would be the “ultimate document” of ownership for urban property.

Once the PR cards were issued, there would be a dramatic reduction in land disputes, he said.

Land recovery

He said that it would also help to recover land fraudulently claimed by land mafias and real estate firms. Data gathered from the present survey would be cross-checked with the records of the 1965 survey. Fragmentation of land only began after the land reforms were introduced. Until then, the records were “sacred” as the changes in land ownership resulted only when land was acquired for a particular purpose.

According to data given by Mr. Kusumadhara, there are an estimated 2.75 lakh properties in 32 villages in 121 sq.km. area within MCC limits.

The Department of Land Records found that the measurements taken by the Bangalore-based firm Navayuga Spatial Technologies Limited in the Katipalla area did not tally with the records of the Land Records Department.

Despite being directed to rectify the inconsistency, the firm completely stopped work on June 6, 2010. Instead of resuming work in Katipalla, it started work in the Attavar area in February 2011, and stopped it March. In June, it closed operations.

• Project being implemented on a pilot basis
• Survey Department may begin the process afresh

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2330002.ece)

x-post.


Wonder whether the GPS can be used to find out whether police vehicles are parked properly or illegally on footpath. If GPS has enough space resolution ability then this may be possible. In Mangaluru, the Police in competition with the others violate the parking rule on footpath.

On the other hand Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is also used for detecting overspeeding, illegal parking, congestion pricing, etc in countries which have well developed ITS (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, etc). But, I think in Mysuru ITS will be used only for buses with features like Operational and Maintenance Specification Fleet Management System (Route Planning, etc), Automatic Vehicle tracking system, Electronic Fare Collection, Real-time Passenger Information System, Traffic Management (ATCS), Incident and Emergency Management System, etc. In Bengaluru metro will have many ITS features and a few buses are already having some display elements but how well ITS of metro will be integrated with ITS of bus transportation is not known to me. It looks neither in Mysuru nor in Bengaluru personal vehicles are part of ITS. No idea whether police vehicles form a part of Incident and Emergency Management System. What is more important is how easily the ITS systems, currently under installation, could be enhanced to incorporate other features and modes of transportation. Ultimately we need super integration of ITS in cities with each other and also with highways. A driver should be able to run his vehicle in any city and in any highway with the same ITS gadgets mounted in it and the same type of keyboard/display should be available everywhere. Mostly so called service-oriented architecture could enable this.

Yes in Mysore ITS will be used to capture movements of City buses to aid passengers on the arrival and departure timings.

^^
Question is not what is there or not now but, whether the system could be easily expanded to include other features one by one later without repurchasing everything.

x-post



Mangalore, Aug 17: The city police commissionerate has introduced a system through which the members of the public can file their complaints by telephone.

Supported by the Interactive Voice Recording System (IVRS), the facility allows citizens to submit their pleas and plaints from their own telephones, without the need to come in person. It is a totally computerized system.

Dial (0824) 2222212

The system responds, with language options in Kannada and English, and gives instructions to have the verbal complaint recorded in voice format. The reference number is also provided. The complainant has to give his / her name, address and contact number and press the specified key after the message. The time-slot available is just a single minute.

The status of the complaint, whether registered, under investigation or investigation completed or whether it is disposed of, can be verified at a later stage with the help of the same system.

Replies and endorsements will be sent through the email IDs provided by the complainant. In the absence of an email ID, a copy of the endorsement can be collected in person.http://www.mangalorean.com/images/logo.gif (http://www.mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=258072)

Bangalore, Aug. 17:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/multimedia/dynamic/00757/bl18_bgakr_Aadhaar__757273e.jpg
Aadhaar project: The Chief Minister, Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda, launching UID's Aadhaar project in Bangalore on Wednesday. - G.R.N. Somashekar

Karnataka's Department of e-Governance launched Aadhaar (Unique ID) scheme in Bangalore with the Chief Minister, Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda, symbolically getting photographed and recorded biometric and iris scanned for the UID card.

The Department has drawn up an elaborate plan to cover the city population which ranges between 80 lakh and 1 crore and has set a deadline of March 2012 to achieve it.

According to Mr M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT S&T and e-Governance, “In Karnataka, Aadhaar project was launched in October 2010 on pilot mode in Mysore and Tumkur districts. So far we have achieved 96 per cent and close to 100 per cent respectively as on date.”

First taluk

Turuvekere taluk in Tumkur district has become the first taluk to achieve cent per cent achievement in enrolment.

From June 28, the Department of e-Governance has launched Aadhaar scheme in all the 13 districts in north Karnataka falling under Belgaum and Gulbarga revenue divisions.

“The roll out in the State is bit slow, but we are ahead of other states in implementing it,” said Mr Vidyashankar.

For Bangalore city, the Department is planning to open 1,100 centres by setting up centres in residential welfare societies, IT parks, large establishments, educational institutions.

“We plan to process 40-120 cards a day. In Mysore, we were able to achieve 120 cards a day. In Bangalore, on an average 40 is ideal and department officials are to spend six to 10 minutes per person,” explained Mr Vidyashankar.

Special counters

To cover the entire city we have also planned to open 24/7 special counters in addition to appointment based enrolment. The Department has also offered Google maps to locate centres.

Later speaking at the Aadhaar scheme roll out function, the Chief Minister said “On behalf of all the 6.11 crore Kannadigas, I extend my congratulations to Mr Nandan Nilekani for this stupendous achievement.”

“People of Karnataka have always supported and whole heartedly taken part in progressive ideas and tasks like Bhoomi, e-stamping and now Aadhaar. We are confident of covering 80 per cent of the residents by March 2012. In the next one year I am sure we will be 100 per cent Aadhaar State,” Mr Gowda said.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated August 18, 2011)

BL (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-states/article2367023.ece)

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00757/17MN_POLICE_757810f.jpg
An official monitoring the IVRS at the Police Commissioner’s office in Mangalore on Wednesday.

The Mangalore Police Commissionerate introduced a new “Interactive Voice Recording System” on Monday. People can call 2222212 and tell their grievance. The police will register it and update the complainant about the action taken. The complainants need not travel to the police station and meet the police officer concerned to lodge a complaint.

Already 10 complaints/grievances have been registered. Commissioner of Police Seemant Kumar Singh told The Hindu thatthe new system reduced the need for complainants to visit the police station. “We will inquire into the issue. If it turns out to be a cognisable offence, we will ask the complainant to file a formal complaint and then proceed with an FIR (First Information Report),” he said.

Working process

The person calling on this number will be first asked to choose the language, Kannada or English. Then it will take him through the proceeds of registration of the complaint.

Here, the caller has to mention his name, postal address, contact number, and e-mail ID. Then the complainant has to speak about the grievance and press the # button at the end.

The caller is given one minute to speak. The system then generates the complaint number, which can be used by the complainant for follow up.

A person has been assigned to hear each of the recordings and put out the grievance in writing.

The audio recording and the related grievance will be sent to the Commissioner, who forwards the same to the police stations or to the police officers concerned for their response and action.

A separate server has been created to store all the material related to the grievance. “We will physically maintain a record of these grievances and complaints,” Mr. Singh said.

This was a beginning of making it easy for people to file petitions to police. “We will study its working and carry out changes that are needed,” he said.

The IVRS will be restricted for calls made within Mangalore. A decision about having a toll-free number would depend on the response to the IVRS facility, he said.

The office of the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police in Bangalore has a toll-free number 1800-4250-100.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2368676.ece)

x-post
M'lore One makes life more easier

MANGALORE: More services have been brought under the ambit of Mangalore One centre in the city. The EDCS directorate, e-governance department, government of Karnataka in collaboration with DK district administration and Mangalore City Corporation has set up these Centres at Lalbagh, LHH Road, and Kadri. These are conceptualised to deliver services of government departments and private companies under one roof.

The centre initially accepted payment of electricity bill of three sub-divisions of Mescom in the city, BSNL's CellOne mobile payment and sale of passport application. As part of the expansion programme rolled out in a phased manner, Mangalore One centres now accept water bill payment, property tax of MCC, BSNL landline bill payment, KSRTC bus ticket booking, and Airtel landline and mobile bill payments.

In addition, these centres are also accepting Vodafone mobile bill payment, sale of application forms for state, central government, public sector units, and bank jobs, and ING Vysya Life Insurance premium payments. Interestingly, railway ticket booking services got underway at these centres on Independence Day. The services will be available from 8am to 8pm on all 365 days in a year and are available on a jurisdiction free basis.

People may visit any of these centres to avail these services. There is no need to pay any additional service charge except for the railway ticketing service. Some of these services such as KSRTC bus ticketing services, BSNL landline payment, water bill payments added towards the end of last year, and in the last couple of months have not really taken off, are expected to do so now. Call Mangalore One Centres on 2459959, 2420086, 2216008.

http://profile.cc.fbcdn.net/hprofile-cc-snc4/203491_26781952138_8365597_q.jpg (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Mlore-One-makes-life-more-easier/articleshow/9636767.cms)

I would say these are all use less services because these can be done from online or any make my bill counter. As I said earliar we need to use the same for Khata conversion apllication collection and status getting, Land registration application collection, city building license getting and reneval. I am telling all these centre should be used for getting application and required document. then user should know the status of where the application is moving, in how many days it is moving and result is yes or no or any clarification required.

then only we will get faster processing of government work. we can got to Lokayukta with the right evidance and accountability.

other telephone, water and electricity bills payment i am getting it done online or near my house through bill junction or ezeebill counter why government has to invest on to this

Nod for online treasury system

The cabinet on Thursday approved the integrated financial management system - Khajane II - to ensure that 90% of government payments are made through the Electronic Clearance System (ECS).

Khajane II is being implemented as Khajane I, introduced in 2001 but became technologically and functionally obsolete.

The new system involves automation of the functions of treasuries across 218 locations. Once implemented, it ensures the following - online release of funds, 90% of ECS payments, generating daily accounts of the state, online tax as well as non-tax payment facility and bank payment option for citizens and centralized pensioners database.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Nod-for-online-treasury-system/articleshow/9655138.cms

Raghava M.

Video-conferencing facility between the Mangalore District Prison and the District Court functioned only for a few days after it was set up a year ago.

The facility has not been restored despite several representations to the authorities concerned.

“I do not know the reason why it takes nearly a year to resolve the technical problem. The facility remains abandoned,” president of the Mangalore Bar Association S.G. Chengappa told The Hindu.

Solution

The facility was thought of as an ideal solution for the problem related to frequent failure of the police to produce undertrials before the courts because of shortage of escort personnel.

According to Bangalore-based Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) Kuchanna Srinivasan, the facility has been set up in all the district and central prisons. At places where similar set up is not in place in courts, such facilities are being kept in use by organising monthly meetings from his office.

Fanfare

Mr. Chengappa said the video-conferencing facility between the Mangalore District Court and the Mangalore Prison was inaugurated with much fanfare last year. But after a few days, the set-up at the District Prison stopped working.

“The authorities need to have better cables between the court and the prison,” he added.

Risk

Such a facility, Mr. Chengappa said, reduced the risk involved in bringing those involved in serious cases from the prison to the court. A large number of police escorts were needed to bring such persons to courts. “With the shortage of escort personnel, the problem of non-production of undertrials still continues,” he added.

Reminders

District Prison Superintendent C.S. Ambekar said the facility had not been set right in the prison at all. “We have sent reminders to the company concerned but it has not responded,” he said.

Mr. Ambekar said there were 237 undertrials in the Mangalore Prison. On an average, 25 of them were produced before courts every day. He admitted that the problem of non-production of undertrials still continued.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2387730.ece)

Minister for Social Welfare A. Narayanaswamy on Friday said that close circuit television cameras would be installed at all hostels run by the Social Welfare Department to monitor the activities of students and the staff.

These cameras would be directly connected to the Minister's office in the Vidhana Soudha. The Minister as well as senior officials would be able to directly monitor the hostels, Mr. Narayanaswamy said while participating in a meeting at the Deputy Commissioner's office here.

These CCTV cameras would be in addition to the biometric devices that were being installed in hostels to record the attendance of students and staff. The Minister told the meeting that merit should not be the sole criteria for admitting students to hostels run by the department.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2401812.ece)

Karnataka government orders, circulars to go online

The state government is planning to upload documents such as government orders, circulars and announcements on internet so that public may access them without any hassles.

Higher education minister VS Acharya told this to reporters after a meeting of the state cabinet on Thursday. The government departments will have to upload the documents immediately upon issuing them.

Acharya said as per the proposal, all the departments would have to upload all of their following documents on internet: orders, circulars, announcements, land records, survey records, land conversion records and other records related to land.

The documents related to land will be scanned, indexed and catalogued. Department of e-governance will implement the project. The exercise will take place in a phased manner at state-level as well as district- and taluk-level. Acharya said the cabinet had approved a grant of Rs32 crore for the project. It will be launched in Bangalore and all the district headquarters.

Later, it will be extended to all the taluks. Through this initiative, the government aims to cut the hassles that people face in getting access to government orders/circulars/announcements.

DNA (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_karnataka-government-orders-circulars-to-go-online_1579885)

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State may see e-voting in next local body elections

Karnataka is keenly watching the experiments of Gujarat and Maharashtra with e-voting. The system had earlier been attempted in Gandhinagar in Gujarat and in a town in Maharashtra. Karnataka may also attempt it, said C R Chikkamath, commissioner, Karnataka Election Commission.
Online voting will have considerable increase in voter participation, especially among the urban class. Gujarat’s State Election Commission (SEC) has developed an online voting system with a process transformation from the ballot paper to EVM to online voting as one of the alternatives implemented in recently-held Gandhinagar local body elections. The precentage of voting increased considerably, he said.

Maharashtra has initiated the process of E-voting by providing the use of PCs, laptops and establishing E-voting kiosks.

The Karnataka SEC has set up a small committee to examine the integrity of the two patterns of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The committee comprises urban development department, ITôBT and e-governance department, directorate of municipal administration and rural development and panchayath raj department officers.

The state election commission is proposing to target the urban local bodies general elections in 2013 on a trial basis by introducing E-voting. This will an additional facility for the voters apart from the regular voting pattern using ballot boxes and EVMs.

The year 2013 will see elections to 209 urban local bodies which include seven corporations namely Mysore, Bellary, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Mangalore, Gulbarga and Davanagere.

The system allows for voting on the Internet and make it an inclusive process which can do away with voter apathy. What is being termed as apathy of the urban voters to the electoral process, is not actually apathy, added Chikkamath. It is a result of the irrational voters’ list.

The voters list, which is an important document and tool for smooth elections, is very different in the cities when compared to villages. In the rural areas, the voters list is fully rationalised since the parts are continuous and boundaries are well defined with polling area within those boundaries.

The voters list of urban areas stand in contrast to voters list of the rural area. Each part is a bunch of islands interspersed with the bunch of islands of other part which are contiguous to one another, said Chikkamath.

BS (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/state-may-see-e-voting-in-next-local-body-elections/448158/)

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-- Hosadigantha

Renuka Phadnis

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00776/08MNFORECAST_776120e.jpg
The electronic marine fisheries forecast system at Bunder in Mangalore. Photo: R.Eswarraj Related

Fishermen in the Bunder area say that the electronic marine fisheries forecast system is not of much use to them.

Called Ocean Information System (it is from the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences), it gets information from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad. The official concerned, however, says that they must spend more time to get information from the system.

On Wednesday, there were some pictures of the map of India with wind speed and direction on the system installed at the office of the Deputy Director of Fisheries in the Bunder area. But they were not current images, said sources in the office.

They said that there were no satellite images due to overcast conditions, and hence, the weather forecast was not available.

Some fishermen in the Bunder area said that they did not refer to the electronic weather forecasting system. They said they depended on other fishermen for information.

“For us, it (electronic) is 90 per cent useless. We depend on the wireless system for fish and weather forecasts,” said a fisherman.

The “10 per cent” use it had was the time they referred to it when they expected cyclones, he said.

Another fisherman said that he watched the early morning news on TV for weather updates. “I have never gone there (electronic system) to check for weather bulletins,” he added.

Suresh Kumar Ullal, Deputy Director of Fisheries, said that the INCOIS system gave information and fishermen had to spend some time in getting it.

“They don't come to office. They have to come and study it for half an hour. They should spend at least 15 to 20 minutes,” he added.

He said the system gave information on weather, wind speed, height of wave and density of fish. However, when it was cloudy, it could not provide information.

“Some educated people and those who know English come to check on the weather,” according to sources in the office of the Deputy Director of Fisheries.

A speedboat owner said: “I know English. I visited the place three times in the past one week, but there was no information.” He said he sought to know the weather because information given would help him negotiate the “Alive Bagilu” (the bar mouth) which was dangerous.

Mr. Ullal said: “Information is in English. That could be another reason (for lack of use).”

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2435148.ece)

State women's commission mulling over opening an online complaints forum (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2437821.ece)
What about protection for non-IT/ITES sector women working late nights?

DEEPA KURUP

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The entire process will be streamlined through a website and a call centre.

Seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act is all set to get easier. Adding a “smart” layer to the process of applying for information, the Karnataka Government has decided to set up a business process outsourcing centre to handle all applications, enquiries, and even billing.

Streamlining the entire process through a website and a call centre, this project, which is pending Cabinet approval, will simplify the current application process where people are required to visit individual departments to procure information. The contract for the project, which will be executed through a public-private partnership, has been awarded to CMC Ltd., an IT solutions firm, which is a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services.

“The details of the project have been worked out. Once it is approved by the Cabinet, we hope to roll out the service in a few months,” said M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, Department of e-Governance.

Karnataka will be the second State to implement such an initiative, following Bihar which introduced ‘Jankaari' in 2007. The project, which, in 2008-09, won the national e-governance award for “outstanding performance in citizen service delivery”, has been moderately successful and has managed to simplify the process of applying, experts say.

When Bihar implemented the project, activists hailed this as a significant step towards strengthening the RTI Act by making it accessible in rural areas. As Mr. Vidyashankar explains, for a person living in rural Karnataka, the cumbersome commute to the district headquarters or to the public information officer will replaced by a simple phone call once the project is implemented.

HOW IT WORKS

The process is simple. The company that handles the call centre will take calls, which include both applications and general enquiries on how to file an RTI application, or the status of your application. The call will be a premium one, where the cost of the RTI application will be charged on your phone bill. The Government will collect the bill, which can even include the cost of providing information depending on the materials requested, from the service provider.

Currently, top sources in CMC said, partnerships had been established with two telecom service providers, and more deals were in the pipeline.

Those who apply online could use credit cards to make payments, a CMC official said.

After the application is entered into the database, a token number is issued to the applicant for future reference. The application is then sent to the department concerned. All the other rules that apply to seeking information under the RTI Act remain unchanged. Follow-ups on application status and grievance redressal would also be done through this call centre, an official said.

Currently, the company plans to employ around 15 people to attend to calls for around 12 hours a day. “As a project that has tremendous social benefits, we are interested in also establishing a model that is replicable and scalable so it can be emulated across the country,” the official added.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article2459994.ece)

I read somwhere that Andra Pradesh Government has even plan for bill payments through mobiles.

Karnataka to have mobile Aadhaar registration vehicles to reach remote places

Fairness through openness: China uses IT-enabled transparency to prevent corruption (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2445629.ece)
China inspired by Karnataka?

Students develop technology for bank's security (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Students-develop-technology-for-banks-security/articleshow/10022726.cms)

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/09/21/20110921x_002100002.jpg

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00790/24MN_AADHAR_790574f.jpg
MAKING A POINT: D.S. Ravindran, Chief Executive Officer, State Centre for e-Governance addressing officials at a workshop on the implementation of the resident data hub in Mangalore on Friday. Photo:R.Eswarraj

Data collected for issuing UID will be used

The State Department of e-Governance has planned to create a “Karnataka Resident Data Hub” by utilising the data collected for issuing Unique Identification Number (UID) to residents in the State, according to D.S. Ravindran, Chief Executive Officer, State Centre for e-Governance.

Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of a workshop for officials on Aadhaar, brand name of the UID, he said the department in the first phase had planned to link the data collected from residents of Mysore and Tumkur districts, on a pilot basis, to the hub.

He said the drive for enrolling for the UID had received a good response in the two districts. The government had completed 97 per cent of the enrolment in the two districts. Hence the department had planned to link the data to the hub by March 2012.

As and when the government completed the process of enrolling residents to the UID in other districts, the data would be linked to the hub. He said the data in the hub could be used to identify beneficiaries for various government schemes. Initially, it had been planned to use the data in the hub for identifying beneficiaries to social security pension schemes and issuing ration cards. Once the hub was rolled out on pilot basis in Tumkur and Mysore, the data would be used as a test case to identify beneficiaries for Social Security Pension Scheme and Public Distribution System, Mr. Ravindran said.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2481789.ece)

Resident data hub will ensure govt benefits reach people (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Resident-data-hub-will-ensure-govt-benefits-reach-people/articleshow/10101616.cms)

MANGALORE: Karnataka will strike it rich with the Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) Aadhaar project. A move to include Know Your Resident (KYR+) norms as part of the Aadhaar data collection process has put Karnataka on the fast track to start the Karnataka Resident Data Hub, which will be linked to data collected for UIDAI.

This hub will be rolled out by March 2012 in Tumkur and Mysore, districts were Aadhaar enrolment was carried out on a pilot basis.

As per government estimates, nearly 30-40% of benefits rolled out under various social security schemes do not reach the intended beneficiaries.

We intend to plug the leakage through this data hub, D S Ravindran, CEO, Centre for e-Governance, government of Karnataka, told TOI on the sidelines of an Aadhaar workshop for government officials here. KYR+ norms collect information on seven crucial social security schemes.

These include social security pension, ration through public distribution system (PDS), MGNREG scheme, LPG, milk producers' cooperative society membership, and IP set connection. Once this hub starts in Tumkur and Mysore, data pertaining to social security pension scheme and PDS will be used as a test case to identify beneficiaries and then extended to other social security schemes, Ravindran said.

He explained that the prime reason for coming up with the idea of the hub was that earlier attempts to match the state data base created for PDS and election purposes did not add up to the number of beneficiaries in each of the above schemes. We were able to get a 9% match, he said, adding that with UIDAI data, the state will have an exact fix on the number of beneficiaries involved in each scheme and help in better delivery of services to them.

UIDAI, appreciating Karnataka's effort in adding KYR+ norms, has asked other states to emulate our model, Ravindran noted. Goa will be shortly incorporating KYR+ norms, and once the framework of the hub is created, more government schemes can be mapped to it. In the near future, a DC would be able to tell if a person chosen for an Ashraya scheme housing site has one or not, and the resultant spin-offs are endless, he added.

MANGALORE: Enrolment under Aadhaar project of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in Dakshina Kannada district will get underway on September 29.

District in-charge minister J Krishna Palemar will launch the project wherein 21-lakh odd residents of the district will be covered. Government of Karnataka, which is the registrar for the project, will set up 225 stations in locations that the district administration will decide.

D S Ravindran, CEO, Centre for e-Governance, Government of Karnataka, told reporters here on Friday the process of enrolment of citizens of Mysore division barring Mysore where the enrolment was taken up as a pilot project in October 2010, will get underway in a week's time. The fingerprints of all digits of the hand, iris scan and photographs of all those above 15 years will be taken and only photograph of those below 15 years will be taken, he said.

MOBILE CENTRES

The administration will also set up mobile Aadhaar enrolment centres to take care of those who are not able to come to the stations, Ravindran said, adding that permanent stations will be set up in the taluks at a later date.

These 225 stations spread across the five taluks will be distributed in such a manner that people can reach the nearest station with ease, he said, adding that the number of stations could be easily scaled up if the need for it arises.

Acknowledging concerns that citizens could run into teething problems in the initial days during the enrolment process, Ravindran said each enrolment process could take six to 12 minutes in case of adults and slightly longer in case of infants and children. Person behind each station can enrol a maximum of 50 persons each day, he said reminding that in Mysore, enrolments reached 100 per day as enrolling persons got accustomed to the process.

Once the enrolment process is complete based on set of documents produced, Ravindran said the unique id, a 12-digit randomly created number will be sent to the person concerned through speed post. The UIDAI in an amendment has empowered all MPs, and MLAs, and gazetted officers, gram panchayat presidents to give address proof in case of residents in their areas who do not have one. DC N S Channappa Gowda and officials were present.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Get-set-for-your-Aadhaar-numbers/articleshow/10101633.cms)

In Mangalore, about18,000 people have enrolled for Aadhaar, the 12-digit unique identification (UID) number which the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is issuing, according to T.G. Naik, Superintendent of Post Offices, Mangalore Division of India Post.

Each day, in Mangalore, 450 to 500 people enrol for the Aadhaar card from eight post offices: Pandeshwar, Hampankatta, Kankanady, Kulshekar, Balmatta, Kodialbail, Ullal, and Bejai. He said: “We have improved the token system in the last one week to enrol 70 people per day”.

At Pandeshwar Post Office, on Tuesday afternoon, there were five or six people waiting in the enrolling queue.

Some people in the queue said that they had waited for long, while a few said that they had waited for more than three hours. Shameem, who had got a coupon in the morning and had returned at 3 p.m., said: “I have not had any problem.”
Documents

Surendra said that he had waited for four hours. A board should be put up at the post office stating what documents should be brought to enrol for “Aadhaar”. He called the post office before going there and the information was given as though a favour was being done. The tone in which the information had been given “was not at all OK,” he said.

Benedicta D'Souza and Indravathi said that they had come on Tuesday as it was a holiday for them. Ms. D'Souza said that she had got a token and been told to come at noon. Since she lived nearby, she went home and returned at the given time.

Ms. Indravathi said that she had been waiting since 10.30 a.m. till 2.15 p.m. She said there had been 10 to 15 people in the queue before her and there had been a problem with the computer. The person at the computer said she was forbidden from speaking to the press.
‘Additional work'

A post office employee said that people have to wait as there was no separate staff or counter to enrol people for Aadhaar.

“We do this in addition to our other work. It is on a rotation basis,” she said. Beginning at 9 a.m., they give 60 coupons. They reach that number by 12.30 p.m. and sometimes by 11 a.m., she said.

Siddappa Shivalingappa Mutnal, Senior Post Master, Mangalore Head Post Office, Pandeshwar, said that existing staff is used for the Aadhaar work and they clear 50 to 60 applications each day. They spend one to one and a half hours in the morning to give coupons to those who want to enrol for Aadhaar. Documents to be brought by the public were displayed on a banner at the entrance of the post office, Mr Mutnal said.

The collection of data for Aadhaar had been given to a private party, who were working out of select post offices. The documents (the application for Aadhaar and the records) were collected by the Department of Posts.

“They (People) have to wait …after we issue the token, they can come back at the given time,” said Mr. Naik. Enrolling for Aadhaar requires: the application form, proof of identity, proof of address and date of birth. Application forms are available in the above-mentioned post offices.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2496325.ece)

BANGALORE: The regional office of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) celebrated one year of launching its Aadhaar facility for the public at the Hotel Capitol on Thursday.

Aadhaar Excellence awards were also given to 15 operators belonging to various enrollment agencies working in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry at the function.

The operators of these regions have enrolled more than 7.5 million residents and have generated more than 4 million Aadhaar numbers to date.

Deputy Director General, Regional Office Ashok Dalwai said that the aim of UIDAI was to reach 60 per cent of the total population of 123 crore by 2014.
“We have increased our enrollment capacity to 10 lakh a day,” he said. Addressing the issue of privacy in the process, he said that the process only aimed at recording 4 demographic details which are very common and cannot be used to track a person down.

He also said that UIDAI has committed not to release any information about Aadhaar card holders without their consent. He discussed various ways in which this unique number could be integrated into providing customer support in sectors like banking and public distribution systems.

IBNLive (http://ibnlive.in.com/news/uidai-celebrates-one-year-of-aadhaar/188855-60-119.html)

ರಾಜ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಆಧಾರ್ ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ಪ್ರಶಸ್ತಿ
-- ಉದಯವಾಣಿ, ಅಕ್ಟೋಬರ್ ೧, ೨೦೧೧ ಪುಟ ೭

http://www.mangalorean.com/images/news/267417-camera.jpg

Puttur, Oct 2: This town will soon be under the prying eyes of surveillance cameras, joining the elite club of metros and cities in the country.

The police here have decided to have surveillance cameras installed at strategic points in the city.

A team of experts made a study of important junctions and other points which would require such monitoring on Saturday, Oct 1. They are understood to have selected the Darbe junction, Bolwar junction, bus stand and the mini Vidhan Soudha to begin with.

The images beamed by these cameras will been seen on a large screen in the control room of the city police station. This step has been taken in view of the increasing traffic density and population.

It may be noted that the cases of theft in city and around are on the rise at an alarming rate. Recently the consumers' forum from here had made fervent appeals to the state home minister, home secretary and the chief minister seeking early installation of this equipment.

The cameras are likely to be helpful in tracking down offenders in theft cases and also keep watch of persons moving around suspiciously in the nights.

Mangalorean (http://www.mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=267417)

Bangalore, Oct 18: Karnataka Government has signed a contract with software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for providing software solution facilitating integrated financial management of all spending and resource mobilisation of state treasury funds.

Under the major e-governance initiative, ‘Khajane-II’ programme, the government would provide an integrated electronic platform for all stakeholders, to carry out their financial transactions and to share data in a seamless manner for their decision making, accounting and auditing of public finance, making payments to and from the government convenient to the public and enhancing transparency in management of public finances.

http://www.daijiworld.com/images1/tcs_181011-1.jpg

TCS Vice-President Tanmoy Chakrabarthy and State Treasury Director N T Abroo signed the agreement in the presence of Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda. Additional Chief Secretary K Jairaj, Finance Department Principal Secretary L V Nagaraj, and Secretary Ajay Seth were also present.

Khajane-II seeks to take e-governance to the next level following implementation of the government’s Khajane-I programme over the last 10 years since 2001.

Khajane – II would be exclusively use digital signatures in its day to day operations.

Out of 13 firms, including Infosys Technologies Limited and Wipro Technologies, participated in the tender process, TCS has been selected for executing Rs. 80 crore project and would establish the system and provide operation and maintenance support for six years.

A pilot project under the Khajane-II programme would be completed by next April and the final project would be rolled out by April, 2013, Chakrabarthy said.

Gowda wanted TCS to advance the deadline for implementation of Khajane-II ahead of the 2013 Assembly polls in the state.

When fully operational, Khajane-II will provide a daily synopsis of activity in the accounts of the state government and an online system for release of funds.

All transactions would be through an electronic clearing service (ECS) mechanism, obviating the need for the 80 lakh challans used currently for transactions.

The treasury and banks will interact online through a secure network and share information in a real-time environment.
http://www.daijiworld.com/images/daijiworld_375x65.jpg (http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=119423)

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/10/19/20111019aC004100005.jpg

^^
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3627/onlinef.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/onlinef.jpg/)
-- Hosadigantha

TCS bags Rs 94 cr Karnataka govt deal (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/software-services/TCS-bags-Rs-94-cr-Karnataka-govt-deal/articleshow/10414488.cms)

Tata Consultancy Services signed a Rs 94-crore deal with the Karnataka government to automate its treasury and finance department operations.

"As per the six-year contract, TCS will set up the Khajane-II (treasury ) system for integrated financial management of the state's expenditure and resources mobilisation," state finance secretary L V Nagarajan told reporters here.

The project will replace the present Khajane-I system that was set up a decade ago. "The upgraded system will address functional and technical constraints faced by the present system so as to enable dynamic fiscal management and convenience to the public, suppliers and employees," Nagarajan said.

"Citizens will also be able to use the system for tax and non-tax payments, access on real-time information on receipts, funds released , scheme wise expenditure details and database on pensioners," Nagarajan added.

http://i44.tinypic.com/rlfehs.jpg
-- Udayavani

http://i42.tinypic.com/153bu5t.jpg
-- Udayavani

Nandita Vijay, Bangalore
Monday, October 24, 2011, 08:00 Hrs [IST]

Karnataka drugs control department is aggressively working to meet its deadline of November 1, 2011 for issue of sales licenses via online. The department has installed the software developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the Government of Karnataka in consultation with Gujarat FDA. The initiative has been extensively supported by the State department of e-governance. The department has already uploaded details of 6,527 pharmacy outlets in the state out of the around 24,000 spread across 30 districts in the state. It has also issued 28 fresh sales licenses.

Karnataka is the third state in the country to embrace the electronic mode for issue and renewal of licenses after Maharashtra and Gujarat. This is a major effort to boost efficiency, streamline operations and bring in the much-needed transparency, Dr BR Jagashetty, Drugs Controller, government of Karnataka told Pharmabiz.

With this software, the head office in Bangalore can keep tabs of the operations of the pharmacy outlets, inspection schedules, violations and related actions along with the details of the fee. It will also provide details of the drugs seized for not-of-standard quality and the status of resubmissions of quality reports thereafter. Information on the enforcement officers in the department with details on the kind of work being carried out each day would help the drugs controller have the required details at the press of a button, he added.

The best part of the software is that it would detect the details of the duplication of pharmacists at the outlets. It will also ensure that only registered pharmacists are employed at the outlets, be it wholesale or retail and the same candidate would not offer his service at other outlets.

As a part of future action plan, the department is also toying with prospect to employ pharmacists on an hourly basis as against the current 8-hour work schedule in accordance with the Labour laws. This would bring in the concept of consulting pharmacist which is in vogue in the developed world. In an Indian environment, it would help maximize the available human resources in the space, said Dr Jagashetty.

“We would ensure being totally online to issuing all sales licenses for pharmacy outlets from November 1 and on November 5 we would be having a video conferencing to link department of the health secretary and the directorate of health and family welfare. In fact, the drugs department which comes under the purview of the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare is the first section to go online,” said Dr Jagashetty.

The department has undertaken the issue and renewal of manufacturing licenses for the 236 pharma production units in the state which is undergoing extensive trials.

Further, the department also intend to record the details of the hospitals and the registered medical practitioners to see the kind of drugs stocked and prescribed. This would help the department considerably to prevent the prescription of banned medicines and to stall circulation of spurious/ adulterated drugs, stated Dr Jagashetty.

pharmabiz (http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=65715&sid=1)

Land records in Karnataka to be indexed, catalogued

Land records in Karnataka would be scanned, indexed and catalogued, as per a Cabinet approval on Friday.

To start with, 90 Revenue Department offices mainly in urban places would be covered.

The Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, approved grant of Rs 32 crore for the initiative.

"It's an ambitious programme", Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar told reporters.


http://zeenews.india.com/news/karnataka/land-records-in-karnataka-to-be-indexed-catalogued_739990.html

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/11/06/20111106aA001100008.jpg

ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಕಾದರೂ ಆಸ್ತಿ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಮಾಡುವ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಶೀಘ್ರ

- ನಿನ್ನೆಯಿಂದ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾಯೋಗಿಕವಾಗಿ ಜಾರಿ
- ಹೊಸ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಜಾರಿಗಾಗಿ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಾಯ್ದೆಗೆ ಸದ್ಯದಲ್ಲೇ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ: ಸಿಎಂ
- ಭೂಮಿ, ಕಾವೇರಿ ಯೋಜನೆ ಸಂಯೋಜನೆಗೆ ನಿರ್ಧಾರ

ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು: ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಯಾವುದೇ ಭಾಗದ ಆಸ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಕಾದರೂ (ಯಾವುದೇ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಚೇರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ) ನೋಂದಣಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಲು ಅನುವಾಗುವಂತೆ ಶೀಘ್ರವೇ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಾಯ್ದೆಗೆ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ತರಲಾಗುವುದು ಎಂದು ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಡಿ.ವಿ. ಸದಾನಂದಗೌಡ ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು.

ದೀರ್ಘ*ಕಾಲದ ನಂತರ ಶನಿವಾರ ಆಯೋಜಿಸಲಾಗಿದ್ದ ಸುದ್ದಿಗೋಷ್ಠಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಮೂರು ತಿಂಗಳ ಅವಧಿಯ ಆಡಳಿತದಲ್ಲಿನ ಸಾಧನೆಯನ್ನು ಎಳೆಎಳೆಯಾಗಿ ಬಿಚ್ಚಿಟ್ಟ ಅವರು ಸ್ವತ್ಛ, ಪಾರದರ್ಶಕ ಹಾಗೂ ಸುಧಾರಿತ ಆಡಳಿತ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಜಾರಿಗೆ ತರುವ ತಮ್ಮ ಚಿಂತನೆಯ ಅಂಗವಾಗಿ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಾಯ್ದೆಗೆ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ತರಲು ಉದ್ದೇಶಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ.

ಇದು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾದರೆ ರಾಜ್ಯಾದ್ಯಂತ ಆನ್*ಲೈನ್* ಮೂಲಕವೂ ಆಸ್ತಿ ತೆರಿಗೆ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಲಿದೆ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು.

ಅಲ್ಲದೆ, 'ಭೂಮಿ' ಹಾಗೂ 'ಕಾವೇರಿ' ಯೋಜನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಸಂಯೋಜನೆಗೊಳಿಸಲಾಗುವುದು. ಇದರಿಂದ ಪರಿಶಿಷ್ಟರಿಗೆ ಮಂಜೂರಾದ ಪಿಟಿಸಿಎಲ್* ಜಮೀನನ್ನು ಇತರರು ನೋಂದಣಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಆದರೆ, ಇದೆಲ್ಲಾ ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಬೇಕು ಎಂದರೆ ಭಾರತೀಯ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಾಯ್ದೆಗೆ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿಯಾಗಬೇಕು.

ಈ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಪ್ರಯತ್ನ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದು, ಆರು ತಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗುವ ನಂಬಿಕೆಯಿದೆ. ಪ್ರಾಯೋಗಿಕವಾಗಿ ಇಂತಹ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆಯನ್ನು ಶನಿವಾರದಿಂದಲೇ ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಜಾರಿಗೊಳಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ನಗರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ವ್ಯಾಪ್ತಿಯ 5 ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಚೇರಿ ಹಾಗೂ 23 ಉಪ ನೋಂದಣಿ ಕಚೇರಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ನಗರದ ಯಾವುದೇ ಭಾಗದ ಆಸ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ನೋಂದಣಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯ ಎಂದರು.

ಉದಯವಾಣಿ (http://www.udayavani.com/news/107637L15-%E0%B2%8E%E0%B2%B2-%E0%B2%B2--%E0%B2%AC-%E0%B2%95-%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%B0--%E0%B2%86%E0%B2%B8-%E0%B2%A4--%E0%B2%A8--%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%A3--%E0%B2%AE-%E0%B2%A1-%E0%B2%B5-%E0%B2%B5-%E0%B2%AF%E0%B2%B5%E0%B2%B8-%E0%B2%A5--%E0%B2%B6-%E0%B2%98-%E0%B2%B0.html)

Online property registration and tax payment
One can pay property tax and do property registration soon at any registration office in the state for any property in the state.
-- Udayavani

Why at registration office only? Why not through any internet connection? (through mobile phone or tablet?) Cann't the state people working in Dubai pay tax from there itself?


Out with the Khata, in with the Property Card (http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/3471-property-card-will-replace-khata-soon)
ANY WHERE REGISTRATION OF PROPERTIES IN KARNATAKA THROUGH E – REGISTRATIONS FROM 2012 (http://ecopackindia.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/any-where-registration-of-properties-in-karnataka-through-e-registrations-from-2012/)

Here are links to old posts on property registration.
Online property registration to be extended across Karnataka (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_online-property-registration-to-be-extended-across-karnataka_1552912) or post 107 page 6.
Land transactions go online in Karnataka to check delays (http://www.inewsone.com/2011/06/24/land-transactions-go-online-in-karnataka-to-check-delays/58650) or post 112 page 6.
Soon Karnataka can book its property from anywhere (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_soon-karnataka-can-book-its-property-from-anywhere_1558896) or post 113 on page 6.
Property records project comes to a halt (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2330002.ece) or post 126 on page 7.


Land records in Karnataka to be indexed, catalogued (http://zeenews.india.com/news/karnataka/land-records-in-karnataka-to-be-indexed-catalogued_739990.html) or post 155 on page 8.
I would say these are all use less services because these can be done from online or any make my bill counter. As I said earliar we need to use the same for Khata conversion apllication collection and status getting, Land registration application collection, city building license getting and reneval. I am telling all these centre should be used for getting application and required document. then user should know the status of where the application is moving, in how many days it is moving and result is yes or no or any clarification required.

then only we will get faster processing of government work. we can got to Lokayukta with the right evidance and accountability.

other telephone, water and electricity bills payment i am getting it done online or near my house through bill junction or ezeebill counter why government has to invest on to this

visnaya may not be fully happy.

The map will help in identifying crime sensitive places and the places where crime rate is high.

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/1843/googlecrimemap.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/googlecrimemap.jpg/)

-- Hosadigantha



Websites of comercial taxes
http://ctax.kar.nic.in
http://vat.kar.nic.in/tp/
http://pt.kar.nic.in/
http://164.100.80.121/cto/EpaymentOptions.aspx
http://164.100.80.121/cto/RegistrationOptions.aspx
http://sugam.kar.nic.in/
http://164.100.80.121/cto/CstFormDetails.aspx

^^
BANGALORE: Experts and realtors have welcomed the announcement that properties in Bangalore would be issued unique identification numbers to address the problem created by multiple khatas, for which they hold official connivance and manual maintenance of records that make tampering easy responsible.

Civic analyst V Ravichandar says there are many properties within the city that have not been converted for non-agricultural use and even if converted , the relevant fee remained unpaid . Such land may not be part of BBMP records. In cases like this, records are tampered with and multiple khatas issued.

TOI (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-08/bangalore/30372560_1_khatas-property-tax-manual-system)

^^

Nov 12, 2011, 02.36AM IST TNN[ Sunitha Rao R ]

BANGALORE: Property is theft, someone said. Property is, in fact, liable for theft since elaborate documentation has only made it that much easier.

Urban property records in and around Bangalore city are a veritable Pandora's box. The same property -- government land at that - being allotted to more than one person is not an aberration. A property described as agricultural land in Bangalore Rural district is listed as a commercial complex in Bangalore Urban district records. There are instances of khatas being flaunted by people who are not the property owners.

The revenue department has unearthed a huge racket where the same property figures in both urban and rural land records. The modus operandi is simple: create a khata after removing the property ID in rural records.

"The fundamental flaw is that there is absolutely no integration of urban and rural land records. The rule is that if there is an RTC -- Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crop Register (RTC) or Pahani as it is known, there cannot be a khata. But we found thousands of such properties. Since urban land records are still largely manual, manipulation is easy,'' official sources told TOI.

The department has also unearthed cases of inherited properties having no proper ownership. "There are many siblings but one of them has claimed ownership and has even sold the property to the third party. The buyer has been cheated as the seller was not the absolute owner of the property. This has happened across all revenue pockets. We want to clean this up by ordering an investigation into every such property and link the rightful owner," the sources said.

The department hopes that the proposed Unique Property Records (UPR) programme, which is the urban replication of the revolutionary Bhoomi project that computerized land records in rural areas, will wipe out irregularities in urban property documentation.

"Bhoomi showed us how we could check manipulation of land records. The revenue department had so far not bothered much about cleaning up urban property records. From 2002, Bhoomi focused on digitizing the properties in Karnataka's rural areas. We will now map urban properties on the same lines. Once the Urban Property Records come into picture, there will be no parallel database and fictitious documents cannot be created. A unified property identity document will be issued to all urban property owners and will be accepted by all agencies. The municipalities can bank on the data we create," revenue secretary Rajeev Chawla told TOI.

THE CLEAN-UP ACT

The Urban Property Records project will be taken up on a pilot basis in 55 wards and cover four lakh properties. "The project will be taken up on a private public partnership basis. It will take off in January 2012. Both government and private properties in all these wards will be first surveyed. A title enquiry will be called for and the property owners must come forward and submit related documents to prove their ownership. We will open service centres for the public. A unique property number will be issued to each of the properties," revenue secretary Rajeev Chawla said.

HOW WILL IT WORK?

Revenue department will survey each and every property - both government and private. The department will call for a title enquiry where all the documents possessed by the 'owner' must be produced.

"Yes, there are chances of more than one person claiming the ownership of the same property. We will scrutinize every document and issue the document of unique property number to the one who has genuine records to claim ownership,'' officials said.

KEEP THESE READY

* If you have bought a site allotted from BDA, you must submit documents such as your application to BDA for the allotment of the site, the sale deed, the letter of allotment from BDA and tax-paid receipts and encumbrance certificate, if any. If the BDA site has been sold to you, then the sale deed between the seller and buyer must be shown.

* If it is an inherited property, then family chart, encumbrance certificate, the will documents and possession certificate must be submitted.

* If you have purchased a site in a private layout, show the documents of site allotment, sale deed, documents to prove land conversion, land acquisition, encumbrance certificate and any related documents.

CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY

Buyers must cross-check whether the seller is authorized to sell the said property. Most civil suits are due to multiple ownership claims on the property.

TOI (http://m.timesofindia.com/PDATOI/articleshow/10697753.cms)

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00834/11BG-PG5-KSNDMC_834207f.jpg
MILESTONE: V.S. Prakash (right), Director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, and R.S. Deshpande, Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Change, at the inauguration of the Master Control Facility of the KSNDMC in Bangalore on Friday. Photo: K. Gopinathan

* Weather reports can now be prepared three days in advance

Karnataka has made rapid strides in the field of weather forecasting with the State evolving a hobli-level weather forecasting model, which is said to be the first of its kind in the country.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Friday on the sidelines of the inauguration of the building that will house the state-of-the-art master control facility of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre in Bangalore on Friday, centre Director V.S. Prakash said that the weather forecast model had already become operational in the State.

“We are able to prepare the weather forecast reports every 12 hours for three days in advance at the hobli level, and it will go a long way in helping farmers in their agricultural operations,” he said. The model is being calibrated for improving efficiency.

Mr. Prakash pointed out that forewarning would help save lives of humans and cattle, besides helping fishermen plan their day. Even the power sector would benefit by the weather forecast as it would help them plan power supply because if there are rains, then the demand for electricity naturally goes down. Similarly the transport sector also can plan the operations and reduce losses.

He pointed out that a rupee spent on forewarning would help save Rs. 7 to Rs. 10 in terms of losses.

R.S. Deshpande, Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Change and member of the Centre's executive committee, noted that though Orissa and Gujarat also had set up such centres, their focus was on floods and earthquakes as these were their main problems. But Karnataka was the only State to take a holistic approach rather than concentrate only on a few issues with respect to natural disasters, he said.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article2619296.ece)

http://dmc.kar.nic.in/

MCC on the way to biometric attendance

Sreekantswamy B, Mysore, Nov 16, DHNS:

Hence forth if you find staff at Mysore City Corporation (MCC) pressing their thumb against an equipment, don’t find it amusing. The city corporation is shortly getting rid of manual job, incorporating biometric attendance.

The corporation has already launched the exercise to collect all 10 fingerprints, besides photo and other required details of its employees for the database. The project envisaging improved facility is being implemented at an estimated cost of Rs 27.50 lakh.

MCC commissioner K S Raykar told Deccan Herald, a total of 3600 employees including the contract workers and Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW) are being brought under the said system. The equipment to record biometric attendance will be installed at 76 places- from MCC to revenue offices and Assistant Commissioners’ offices to Vani Vilas Water Works among others. The revenue offices alone are counted at 30.

As is the procedure, the employees have to record their attendance thrice a day. At the end of the month, the machine generates salary bill equal to pay slip.

In the earlier case, all was manual-from recording the attendance to the bill. Most importantly, the bills were declared authentic only after it was passed through a hierarchy of officers. In the case of biometric, it will be exactly opposite.

Moreover, it would also help rein in the absentees who at the end of the month put their foot down to disprove that they had stayed away from the duty, in case of manual system.
The work on collecting the data has started departments’ wise-revenue, health, UGD, vehicle, engineering, control room etc., Already 60 per cent of the job is completed and the task is expected to be accomplished in five more days.

The corporation intends to make the system operational either in the month of December or latest by January 2012.

Traffic personnel using the Blackberry devices to book motorists for traffic offences, which is already in vogue in Bangalore, will be extended to rest of the State. These devices will be put into service in the next three months in this region.

Additional Director General of Police (Police Computer Wing) and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety Praveen Sood said the department wants to extend paperless enforcement of rules to the rest of the State. “This system which is implemented in Bangalore for the last four years has brought in transparency in the enforcement. It has been well received in Bangalore,” he said.

The handheld blackberry devices were among the many technological tools introduced by the Bangalore Traffic police since 2007. “We started with the scratch. We now have the software and necessary infrastructure for automated enforcement.” The advantage is that the fine amount collected would directly go to the State Treasury. “It will help in centralising the enforcement operations,” he said.

Necessary changes will be made at the data centre in Bangalore to handle the information from the traffic stations in the State. Mr. Sood said presently the data centre was connected to 750 blackberry users in Bangalore Traffic police. There was a need to enable the centre to receive information from the 250 traffic policemen in the state, he said. Mr. Sood said as many as 300 traffic policemen have received preliminary training in handling the devices.

He said the devices would start operation in the Mangalore, Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad Police Commissionerates and traffic police stations in the remaining districts.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2638512.ece)

State moves to weed out bogus ration cards

Press Trust Of India / Chennai/ Bangalore November 19, 2011,
In its continued efforts to weed out bogus ration cards, Karnataka Government will be introducing te system of submission of applications for new cards “on-line” from tomorrow.

Those who do not have ration cards in urban areas can apply through “online” and in rural areas it can be submitted “on-line” through panchayat offices, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Shobha Karandlaje told reporters here on Friday.

The card aspirants living in the urban areas can visit the department’s website http://ahara.kar.nic.in to submit their applications and those who find it difficult can visit the offices concerned of the department and avail the facilities by paying a fee of Rs 10, she said.

But, all application registration will have to be done on-line, she said.

Karnataka is said to have 16.7 million ration cards and of them at least 3 million are believed to be bogus, she said.

All the bogus cards would be cancelled, she said. In order to identify ineligible ration cards in urban areas, the cards have been linked to electricity meter RR numbers of the houses in which beneficiaries reside.

In rural areas, the gove-rnment is making use of computer database of the panchayats and the cards have been linked to property tax numbers of the houses, she said.


BS (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/state-moves-to-weed-out-bogus-ration-cards/455932/)

BANGALORE: Energy sector professionals and officials from across the state gathered in the city on Saturday to discuss latest developments in wind forecasting at a one day seminar organised by the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) in association with National Aerospace Laboratories(NAL) and the Centre for Study of Science Technology and Policy (C-Step).

The inaugural session featured ‘Varsha’ which is a wind prediction software developed by NAL capable of making predictions upto 24 hours in advance. “Wind energy is perhaps the most mature industry but due to variable supply levels, it is difficult to incorporate it into our existing system of large grids,” said Dr Kota Harinarayana, DRDO Scientist.

“Varsha is customized for the tropical climate in India. It is also capable of making monthly forecasts. It runs on a supercomputer capable of 10 Teraflops per second. Our forecasts go to the Prime Ministers Office,” said Shyam Chetty, Director NAL.

Appreciating the wind energy sector, Ravi Kumar,MD, KPTCL discussed how 1000MW of power from the wind energy sector had kept the state from plunging into a deep energy crisis in September. “The generation dropped to 100 MW in the last week of September and we all saw the results,” he said speaking about the power crisis that the state went through at the time which led to load shedding.

Stressing on the reliability of wind prediction AR Upadhya, Former Director of NAL said, “Proper prediction is important to ensure grid reliability as well. Ten per cent of the current 160 GW generated in the country is being met by Wind Energy sources.” This assumes special significance in light of the upcoming Indian Electricity Grid Code for the next year which seeks to make wind energy generators responsible for wind forecasting.

The seminar also went on to include panel discussions on the technical aspects of Nowcasting, which is a current estimation of wind trends and a session on Grid management. The speakers included officials from various energy related departments in the state.

IBNLive (http://ibnlive.in.com/news/software-for-wind-prediction-launched/204050-60-115.html)

New software to ensure kannada in governance: CM - IE

Need water connection? Log in
MCC goes net savvy, to roll out new system from tomorrow - TOI

Smart card for water bills soon
MANGALORE, November 21, 2011 (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2644914.ece)

MCC will issue the cards to 100 consumers on Mahatma Gandhi Road
The smart card will be the size of any ATM card
A consumer need not pay any money for the card

In its attempt to introduce smart cards for water billing, the Mangalore City Corporation has planned to experiment it by issuing 100 cards to 100 consumers on Mahatma Gandhi Road shortly.

K.S. Linge Gowda, Assistant Executive Engineer (Water Supply) in the corporation, told The Hindu that a smart card of the size of any ATM card would have water connection and water supply data of a consumer stored in it, including the sequence number of water connection, name and address of the consumer, water consumed by the consumer in six months and the bills issued, and the water meter number.

He said details of data stored in the card would not be accessible to the consumer.

A consumer could only read the sequence number printed on the card.

Service

A consumer now need not pay any money for the card. The corporation would issue the card after uploading the data. A consumer would have to present it to the meter reader, who would issue the bill with a handheld device at the doorstep. Process

Mr. Gowda said once smart cards were issued to consumers of a ward or locality there was no need to insert the previously stored data of consumers to the handheld device as being done now.

The GPRS enabled hand-held device would have a radio frequency reader. Once the meter reader swiped the smart card to the device, the display screen on the device would flash the data of the consumer and the contact would be established with the main server at the city corporation. Then the meter reader would enter the actual meter reading and the bill would be generated on the spot and issued to a consumer. The device would transmit a short message (SMS) to the consumer on his or her mobile phone giving details about the amount and last date for payment.

Mr. Gowda said a consumer would get an SMS immediately after making the payment, if water meter was changed and if their addresses had been changed.

The bills for the 100 consumers on M.G. Road for November issued in December or for December issued in January would be based on smart cards, he said.
x-post.

This is just a reference to know what are the things Karnatakacan also have:

Vasudha Venugopal

Governments worldwide have successfully deployed mobile-based technologies for providing a wide variety of public services, and the Indian States are following suit.

A few years ago, Kerala launched ‘Dr. SMS,' an m-health information system, for providing information on medical facilities available in the locality of the resident. Goa followed, with a mobile governance initiative for issuing alerts for receipt of government applications and complaints and status tracking. Next came Maharashtra. It adopted a similar traffic management system through mobile alerts.

“It is obvious, from the way in which mobile markets have grown in India, that not only are mobile phone-based applications are popular, but they are also more inclusive in their reach because it is a medium that people are familiar with,” says Nishant Shah, director-research, Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore.

A laudable initiative launched by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in September tries to use technology in an area that requires continuous monitoring. A mobile phone-based Intelligent Garbage Monitoring System enables sanitary supervisors to report the status of cleaning of garbage bins through their GPS-enabled mobile phones. Centralised reports as well as those of individual bins can be generated with the system. The map with a GIS interface spans all areas of the city. Managing the number of trips, gathering daily summary of the clearance and, most importantly, reports of the bins that are full but have not been cleared can also be obtained.

When trash is collected, each bin is photographed with a camera phone. The image is loaded on the website, where it is monitored by an administrator in the municipality office. Earlier, the clearing of bins was monitored through information from sanitary supervisors.

“The manual process consumes a lot of time. The use of information technology to monitor municipal services can also increase worker productivity,” says S. Raghavendra, administration officer, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Experts say that though mobile applications for public services delivery use light technologies, they require collaboration among all stakeholders

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/article2644352.ece?homepage=true)

Karnataka police to be 100% IT enabled by 2012

FIRs to case investigations, traffic movement to forensic science laboratory report—all will be available online for investigating heads

The Government of Karnataka is planning to revamp its police stations into fully computerised units by January 2012.

read more: http://www.igovernment.in/site/karnataka-police-be-100-it-enabled-2012

MCC selects two firms for disposal of waste
GPS installation

The sources said that the scheme had prescribed compulsory installation of global positioning system in the vehicles transporting solid waste from wards to the dumping yard at Pachchanady.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2662244.ece)

Try http://kpwd.gov.in/gis.asp open WEBRIS application

It is shocking but true that only 57.55 per cent of property owners in Gulbarga city pay property and development tax to the Gulbarga City Corporation.

Corporation officials had till now turned a blind eye to the open defiance of its rules and regulations by its citizens, but they have now decided to collect penalty from the evaders.

Survey

According to an estimate, the corporation was losing more than Rs. 10 crore a year from evasion of property tax and development tax. This fact was brought out during the intensive Geographical Information System (GIS) survey undertaken in each and every road and bylane of the city for the proposed digitalisation of properties for new GIS numbers. A senior official of the corporation closely involved in the survey told The Hindu that the properties which have not been brought under tax network were “illegal and unauthorised houses” and that there was rampant under-valuation of properties to evade tax.

The present accrual from property tax was around Rs. 8.44 crore; after the completion of GIS mapping of all the properties, the amount would go beyond Rs. 20 crore per annum. The GIS mapping has been taken up as part of the directions of the Survey of India to digitalise properties in all major cities and towns to extend web-based services to residents in these cities and towns.

On the web

The official said that properties in 53 of the 55 wards have been digitalised with the approval of the Survey of India. After getting permission for digitalising the remaining two wards, the corporation will initiate measures for uploading the digitalised road map and property list on the web. Property owners would then be able to pay their taxes online and the corporation would be able to keep tabs on regular payment of taxes.

T.V. SIVANANDAN IN GULBARGA

* Corporation officials had turned a blind eye to evaders, but now they will collect penalty

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2654846.ece)

E-governance jai ho! :cheers:

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/7608/man1h.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/192/man1h.jpg/)
-- Udayavani

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda has inched closer to his promise of bringing transparency in administration.

On Wednesday, Gowda inaugurated the live streaming facility at his home office. He said the facility would be extended to the offices of ministers in a phased manner as many of his Cabinet colleagues had shown interest in adopting the technology to bring in transparency. The e-governance department will extend the facility to the offices, he added.

Presently, people can only watch the video of his offices. Efforts are also being made to feed audio in the coming days. Steps are being taken to make the video available on smart phones, the chief minister said. Gowda said the Government would shortly introduce a system wherein citizens could submit their questions under the RTI Act at BangaloreOne centres or online.

Live streaming

To watch the live video of the chief minister's offices, both at Vidhana Soudha and at his home office ‘Krishna,’ log on to the official website of the State government - www.karnataka.gov.in - click on the button “CM Live” and the live streaming opens in another browser window. The page provides two options: Vidhana Soudha or home office. Depending on where the Chief Minister is, citizens can access the live feed.

CCTV cameras have been installed at the offices and feed from the cameras will be connected to streaming servers of the Content Delivery Networks, which will beam the video live.

The e-governance department has installed the facility with the assistance of the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.

Technical snag

Just a few hours after the chief minister launched the live streaming at his office, the facility apparently developed a technical snag. The official portal of the Government displayed only a blank screen through the day.

When this reporter called up the number on the website - 080-22253424 (chief minister's office), an official said there was some problem with the facility and it would take about a week's time for people to watch the video live.

None of the officials from the e-governance department, including Principal Secretary M N Vidyashankar, were available for comment.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/208442/cms-office-goes-live-only.html)

Corporation to achieve twin objectives

GPS integrated with ETMs will constantly put the bus crew under watch with movement of buses being monitored minute by minute, even as it prevents any move by the conductor to reissue old tickets. Frequent complaints such as missing of trips, not stopping at designated stops, over speeding, rash and negligent driving and so on could be curbed through this system, BMTC Managing Director K.R. Srinivasa said.

Similarly, ETMs will provide accurate data on revenue collection at the desired time interval to the control room, prevent reissue of tickets and harassment of conductors by the checking staff. As the issue of every ticket is recorded and the trip sheet updated after every fare stage, there will be no room for the checking staff to harass the conductors.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2679616.ece

MCC selects two firms for disposal of waste
The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2662244.ece)

Try http://kpwd.gov.in/gis.asp open WEBRIS application

Good that Mysuru has already GPS based waste disposal system and it is doing well.

I think e-governance department should come up with a small handbook on e-governance. In Kannada also. Even at highschool level it could be introduced as a lesson along with other lessons on computers.

Fingerprint attendance to ensure cleaner wards

HUBLI: Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation is planning to start biometric attendance system in all the wards of the twin cities to ensure attendance of cleaning workers and avoid irregularities.

There are 67 wards in the twin cities of Hubli-Dharwad. About 1,700 workers - including regular and contract workers -- are involved in cleaning work under the corporation. Under the present headcount attendance system, workers' attendance is marked manually. The corporation health officer will assign the cleaning work to workers and send the headcount to the accounts section which will make payment to workers accordingly.

However, the headcount system led to various lacunas and irregularities. There were increasing complaints from residents that workers didn't visit and clean their areas. But the workers, who were not regular in attending to their assigned work, would punctually turn up when it came to collecting payment. It is to address this issue that the corporation came out with the idea of biometric system. Under the new system, portable bio-metric machines will be kept in each zonal office and monitored by ward inspector. Each worker should give his thumb impression before going for work and after completion of work.

The personal data of the employees along with their thumb impressions is stored in the machines. The machines are linked to the salary server. According to HDMC commissioner K Trilokchandra, the new system ensures regular attendance of workers and transparency in payment. "We have already started taking attendance using the biometric device in three wards on a trail basis. We will implement the system in all wards within a month. This will help ensure that workers are visiting.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Fingerprint-attendance-to-ensure-cleaner-wards/articleshow/10991118.cms)

MCC has already gone the biometric way isn't it?

x-post
Bangalore Wins an award

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2011/12/03/20111203a_003100004.jpg

Read also Karnataka police to be 100% IT enabled by 2012 above post #168.

TNN Jun 13, 2011, 10.54pm ISTNITK director Sandeep Sancheti, who is also the chairman of CCB told reporters here that this year 3,99,161 students are eligible for online choice filling in engineering stream for around 34,000 seats, while 67,484 students are eligible for 930 seats in architecture stream. These combined seats are offered by 30 NITs, 5 IIITs, 13 CFIs, and 23 SFIs. Across India, 80,001 registrations have been done by boys and 20,170 by girls, he said.

Expecting the number of registrations to increase, Sancheti said the CCB headquartered at NITK has come across four distinct problems faced by students since the process started. These include inability to register, inability to login after first time registration, forgetting of password, and loss of AIEEE admit card that contains their application number. A dedicated team is at it. Issues are being addressed as they arise, he said.

TOI (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-13/mangalore/29652433_1_aieee-online-counselling-nitk)

Ronald Anil Fernandes Mangalore:

* Details on PDS, LPG, etc included only at State recognised centres

Ever since the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) launched Aadhaar scheme, a unique identification project, to issue Unique Identification Number to all Indians, several Indians have submitted their documents to get the UID number and Karnataka is no exception.

Almost everyday, there is a beeline in front of Aadhaar registration centres including the post offices where the facility is available.

In fact, already 1,05,01,236 people have applied for UID in Karnataka (as on December 4, 2012) and the target is to cover 80 per cent before July 2012, said Dr D S Raveendran, the State Registrar for Aadhaar and also the Chief Executive Officer for e-goverance in State. The population of Karnataka is 6.11 crore.

7 schemes

Though the criteria for the UID is the same throughout India, the authorities concerned have linked 7 schemes to Aadhaar scheme in Karnataka (the only State to include such a facility in India) through an order dated May 20, 2011, to create Karnataka Resident Data Hub (KRDH), informed Aadhaar Master Trainer (for Dakshina Kannada district) Pradeep D’Souza, who is also the Assistant Director in the District Statistical Department.

Accordingly, whenever a person applies for Aadhaar scheme in State government authorised centres, the details pertaining to 7 schemes are included in the database.

The 7 schemes include: (1) Public Distribution System, (2) LPG connection (both come under Food department); (3) MGNREGS (Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department); (4) Irrigation pumpset (Energy department); (5) Milk Co-operative Society (Animal Husbandry department), (6) Bhagyalakshmi scheme (Women & Child Welfare department); and (7) Social Security benefits (Revenue deparment) including (a) Sandhya Suraksha scheme, (b) Destitute Widow Pension, (c) Physically Handicapped Pension, and (d) Indira Gandhi Old Age Pension.

However, when a person applies for UID in post offices or banks (which come under Central government), the persons concerned will not include the details pertaining to above mentioned 7 schemes, as it is not mandatory to obtain UID card.

The catch

Though several schemes may not be applicable to most of the people (who do not come under BPL), the first two (PDS and LPG) schemes are part and parcel of a large number of people. In future, when the authorities concerned check the UID number and if there is no entry of PDS or LPG (especially with those persons who received UID through post offices), they will have to visit the departments concerned to submit the details (or else the LPG supply may stop).

When queried, Dr Raveendra expressed his helplessness and said that it is not in his control as post offices come under Central government and moreover, it is only the special scheme of State government to include the service in Aadhaar scheme.

“Registering in post office will not affect in anyway, except the fact that the person concerned may have to visit the departments concerned again to update the information,” he said.

In DK district

Giving details on the facilities available in Dakshina Kannada district, Statistical Officer (Social Security Wing) K S Sandhya said that there are 7 centres in DK where details pertaining to 7 schemes will be included while collecting information for UID. They are located at: Deputy Commissioner’s office premises, K S Rao Memorial Trust Hall, Light House Hill Road; Community Hall, Urwa; MCC sub-office, commerial complex, Kadri; Ward office at Katipalla, TMC building at Moodbidri and at Shirthadi.

At the same time, the facility is also available in 13 post offices at Pandeshwar (Head Post Office), Balmatta, Kulshekar, Hampankatta, Kankanady, Ullal, Mulki, Surathkal, Ashoknagar, Bejai, Bajpe (all in Mangalore division), Puttur, Sullia and Karkala (all 3 in Puttur division).

While nearly 40,000 people have already applied for UID through centres recognised by the State government, the number of people who applied through Central government centres like post offices has crossed 47,000 (who may have to visit the departments concerned again to update their information on PDS, LPG, etc).

Since the authorities concerned in State have expressed helplessness in preventing people from going to post offices, it is left to the people to opt where they want to go to avoid a re-visit in near future.

How unique is UID?

How unique is UID? Well. Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique number issued by the UIDAI. The number will be stored in a centralized database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information – photograph, 10 fingerprints and iris – of each individual, which is easily verifiable in an online. The random number generated will be devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography.

The possibility of duplication of fingerprints is one in 10 crore while the possibility of duplication of iris is one in 25 crore and the possibility (probability) of matching photograph, fingerprints and iris is ‘zero,’ that makes the UID unique, literally.

Rs 41.5 per UID

Each UID costs Rs 41.50 out of which Rs 38.50 is borne by Central government while Rs 3 is borne by the Karnataka government. The total cost to issue UID to all the people in India, thus equal to 41.5 X 121 crore!

Is it worth? According to experts, once all the citizens get UID, much more money can be saved than it is spent on issuing UID cards.

225 stations in DK by Jan 2012

The district is supposed to have 225 Aadhaar centres, but till date only 7 have opened in the district as of now. Dr Raveendra said that by December end, 125 stations will be opened in DK and by January 2012, all the 225 stations will be opened.

Till recently, the only condition for operators was a ‘training completion certificate’ issued by UIDAI. But the rule has been changed and at present, the UID for operators too is a must. Hence, the delay, he added.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/210042/apply-aadhaar-post-offices-regret.html)

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/2112/udupinpr.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/udupinpr.jpg/)
-- Udayavani

^^ English vesion

Udupi, Dec 8: District deputy commissioner, Dr M T Reju, informed that National Population Register (NPR) project has been in force in the district in place of Aadhaar scheme. He clarified that this is in tune with an order of the union home ministry.

“About 80 percent of information has already been collected by officials through door-to-door visits under NPR. As the information submitted for Aadhaar and NPR are almost similar in nature, cards with unique identity numbers will reach the respective families by post. Although the union government has entered into arrangements with the department of post, NSDL etc for implementing Aadhaar scheme, the same has not been extended to this district, as NPR is already in progress,” he explained.

Collection of data in respect of people who had not participated in the first round of the exercise, will be done during the second round.

As per the Aadhaar website, a total of 99,29,297 persons from Karnataka have registered themselves under Aadhar scheme so far, out of which, 31,17,831 cards have been issued.

Daijiworld (http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=124115)

New Mangaluru Port Trust plans

He also announced plans to introduce Enterprise Resource Planning methods in the port after current fine tuning is completed.

"For the first time in India we have also introduced biometric system for labour booking as well," he added.

TNIE

TCS to Deploy Khazane-II for Karnataka Treasury

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the IT Company based in India has announced that it is all set to provide technological support for the Government of Karnataka's Treasury and finance department. The deal is said to be made for 94-crore rupees. The project named, "Khazane- II" is undertaken by TCS for a period of six years. It replaces the Khazane-I that was installed over a decade ago. The new upgraded system fixes the technical and functional constraints that are presently posing a slew of challenges. This aids in online crediting of salaries, releasing of funds for contractors and suppliers through Electronic Clearing Scheme (ECS), and also to generate daily accounts for the Karnataka government.

Khajane II will connect around 24,000 Treasury department's disbursing centers of the state government. Also, Residents can log into the system for making payments related to taxes and non taxes, and to query information related to expenditures, fund released and to find out about the pensioner's information. The new system is slated to be completed by April 2013. It is being built upon the Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) that connects all the government organizations in the state.

The data centre will be functional from treasury network monitoring centre (TNMC) at Khanija Bhavan on Race Course Road, Bangalore where the new system will be deployed. It offers GIS-based MIS and dashboards for authorities to utilize the funds tactfully for implementation of different projects and schemes, which are undertaken by the government of Karnataka. The system helps in real-time monitoring of fund utilization across various government organizations.

Karnataka State finance secretary L.V. Nagarajan said "As per the six-year contract, TCS will set up the Khajane-II (treasury) system for integrated financial management of the state's expenditure and resources mobilization."

Furthermore, the employees will be trained to create digital signatures for everyday activities. Additionally, the Khazane?II will eliminate the need for eight million vouchers or challans that is presently used for all kinds of transactions. It is also set to integrate external organizations such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Accountant General's office, Post offices and commercial banks.

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/TCS_to_Deploy_KhazaneII_for_Karnataka_Treasury-nid-100671-cid-7.html

Urban property data goes digital

The State government on Saturday unveiled Urban Property Ownership Records, a first of kind project in the country to digitise land records.

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, while inaugurating a dedicated citizen service centre at the UPOR office in the City said the government intends to effectively clampdown on the land mafia with the introduction of the new flawless system.

In the first phase, the service will be launched at Mysore, Bangalore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Shimoga and Bellary and extended to other regions subsequently.Under the system, the land records can be verified and updated from UPOR centre across State. They could be accessed through internet also, the chief minister said at a press meet in the City.

He said the UPOR would make available spatial data like extract or sketch to a scale.
The mutations to the urban property records would be effected automatically. Property owners need not apply for mutation separately.

The database would also contain the details of encumbrances fastened on a property, easementary rights, restrictions, details of common boundaries and demarcation of government properties. Any encroachment of government properties would be clearly indicated.

Trace encroachments

Urban local bodies could use the system to collect property tax and issue building licence. The new system is expected to trace encroachments on government land and property tax evasion by owners in cities and towns. 

“For instance, the old records show two lakh properties in Mysore city. But, UPOR data puts the figure at 2.75 lakh suggesting that about 75,000 property owners have not been paying tax. The registration for UPOR will be made mandatory across the State in a phased manner,” Sadananda Gowda told reporters.

For details on UPOR project and its benefits and registration interested can visit www.upor.karnataka.gov.in.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/212529/urban-property-data-goes-digital.html

* Innovation : CM launches citizen service centre in city

Mysore, Dec 17, DHNS:

As the state government takes a big technological leap in registration of urban properties through Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR), Mysore,Shimoga and Hubli-Dharwad are in the forefront in registration. The ownership enquiry process is going on a fast pace in these towns.

New scheme: Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda goes through posters made for the publicity of the UPOR programme in Mysore on Saturday. Rajeev Chawla, secretary, Revenue department,district in-charge minister Ramdas and others are seen. DH PhotoChief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda inaugurated a citizen service centre at the UPOR office at Nazarbad here on Saturday, in a bid to hasten the process of UPOR registration in city.

In his inaugural address, Gowda said the model had been adopted from Scotland’s (England) experience and the success of Bhoomi project. “So far, there was no proper digital details on the urban properties.

The state has made headway in registration of rural RTCs. A similar success will be replicated through UPOR to benefit the citizens and property owners,” the chief minister said.

Field survey

An official told this newspaper that the field survey of properties has been fully completed in Mysore and Shimoga.

There will be more facilitation centres opened in the coming days where citizens can provide documents to proof of the ownership of their property. Special camps will also be set up for the purpose.

According to UPOR officials, a property owner should check or inquire whether his property for which UPOR card is required is within the jurisdiction of UPOR project’s area of interest.

To get a UPOR card, the owners should submit a copy of property records to UPOR office for verification through Title Enquiry.

The properties have been classified into various categories based on the developmental agency like MUDA properties, Gramathana, Ashraya layout and Janatha colony properties, layouts developed by private persons or agencies, properties in housing board layouts, properties on converted/alienated lands but layouts not got approved, properties in agricultural survey numbers – revenue sites, properties on government owned lands – with survey numbers, properties in KIADB/industrial estate or lands used for agricultural purposes. The documents to be submitted depend on the category to which the property belongs to, an UPOR officer said.

For details citizens can visit the UPOR city survey office, besides government guest house, near Mini Vidhana Soudha, Nazarbad, Mysore or Citizen Service Centre, KHB complex, Nrupathunga Road, Kuvempunagar.
DH News Service

Get UPOR card

* Supply all documents and clarifications to Enquiry Officer, attend objection hearing if called for
* Cooperate with department officials and service provider for the field survey
* Visit citizen service centre for registration of finger prints for future verification
* Collect UPOR card on payment of fees

Bring to notice of UPOR authorities about changes in ownership

* Through sale, through registered sale deed
* Partition of property within the family
* Inheritance after the death of owner

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/212581/upor-registration-begins-mysore-urban.html)

For the benefit of sericulture farmers

To provide information to farmers on the prevailing cocoon prices in the markets, the department has launched an SMS facility.

The farmers can get information about the prices by sending SMS to 9243355223 in the following format “CMP1” or “CMP2” or “CMP3”.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/article2726188.ece)

Is this facility available for other farmers growing other products also?

Karnataka plans to create resident data hub

Karnataka government plans to create a State resident data hub and also make filing of RTI and public grievances by people just a phone call away, a senior official said today. "(The proposed) Karnataka Resident Data Hub will link all databases of Government," Principal Secretary, e-Governance Department, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science and Technology Department M N Vidyashankar told PTI here. The government has also proposed anywhere registration of properties in Stamps and Registration Department."The project which has already been started in Bangalore city will be extended throughout the state soon." A state service delivery gateway is also on the anvil, Vidyashankar said. It means there would be a single window for 'G2C' (Government to Citizen) and 'G2B' (Government to Business community) services, with availability of all forms and proform online.He said filing RTI and public grievances would soon be just a phone call away. "Now the citizens are to approach the Government officers either through post or in person for information under RTI. A system is being developed where a citizen can file his request through a phone call or to integrated portal of RTI and Public Grievances," Vidyashankar said. According to him, the State Government has made available e-Procurement platform to enable all its procurements to be made through the electronic mode, transparently under this e-procurement project. "Being a web based solution; anybody can participate without any hindrance/entry barriers" he said.

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/karnataka-plans-to-create-resident-data-hub/940378.html

Karnataka to soon offer guaranteed land titles

Karnataka will become the first state in the country to provide a state guarantee to urban property titles, albeit only implicitly, when Mysore district issues the first urban property cards later this month.

They will be issued under the Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) project— which surveyed 275,000 properties in the Mysore urban area—that creates a record of the current owner of the property.

Titling is the formalizing of ownership of property, which allows the owner to commercial leverage it; at present, it does not exist in India. Further, unclear titles often lead to violent conflicts and endless litigation.

read more:- http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/22230548/Karnataka-to-soon-offer-guaran.html?atype=tp

All state Museums just a click away (http://ibnlive.in.com/news/all-state-museums-just-a-click-away/214724-60-115.html)

MYSORE: Thanks to an initiative of the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, all it will take to get to the different museums of Karnataka from now on will be a mere click.
The directorate, which is all set to launch its website www.karnatakaarchaeology.org on December 24, will enable people to have a 360-degree virtual tour of the photographs and outdoor stills of all state museums. The website will feature photographs of 15 museums, including those in Dharwad, Kamalapur in Bellary district, Mangalore, Bangalore, Belgaum, Kodagu, Raichur, Hassan, Gadag, Gulbarga, Chitradurga, Shimoga, Mysore and Venkatappa Art Gallery in Bangalore.
The virtual tour is accompanied with audio commentary in English and Kannada, and is designed to give an actual feel of the museum itself.
Also, details of employees working with the directorate and a list of its publications,� in addition to copies of the Karnataka Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites Remains Act, 1961, Karnataka Treasure Trove Act, 1962, and provisions of RTI will be available in the website.
“The photographs of 800 protected monuments will be loaded to the website soon, said head of the Directorate Dr R Gopal.

Chikkaballapur, Dec 24, DHNS:

The district administration, domestic gas supply agencies and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) joined hands with the Food and Civil Supplies Department and have come up with a new facility for customers: online information on domestic gas cylinders.

In a programme at the Zilla Panchayat auditorium on Saturday, Sadashiva Marji, deputy director of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, spoke on the new facility.

Various information

“The website of the district administration will give information on the availability of cylinders at the supply agencies as well as methods to book cylinders and the number of days required for supply.”

He added that in case of errors by the suppliers, or in instance of any other problem, the customers could complain directly using the website. “The complaints will be brought to the notice of the deputy commissioner and also the officers of the Food and Civil Supplies Department and the IOCL,” he informed.

First in State

Deputy Commissioner Dr N Manjula said this was the first instance in the State of using a website to provide information on domestic gas supply. The new system would be extended to other departments, she added.

IOCL officer Sudhakar and Peter, district information technology officer Ravishankar, Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer B S Shekharappa were present at the programme.

The new website: http://www.chikballapur.nic.in/

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/214186/online-info-booking-gas-cylinders.html)

M Mahesh,Davangere, Dec 23, DHNS:

All colleges to be linked under National Knowledge Network project

As many as 110 colleges will get internet connection and students will get tablet personal computers to access the e-world under a project of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.

All the universities in the State have been brought under National Education Mission through Information Communication Technology of the Union HRD Ministry.

More than 400 universities across the country have been provided BSNL internet connection under the programme to create a National Knowledge Network.

Each university gets Rs two crore for the project. The Human Resource Development Ministry bears 75 per cent of the cost of the project and the balance will have to be borne by the varsities.

The proposed network will link all the colleges and varsities with each other thus enabling the students to access a broad spectrum of knowledge. Teachers and students can browse research works, e-journals, study materials to supplement their lessons, current affairs, and rapid changes in the world around, Prakash, registrar of Davangere University, said.

Tablet PCs

The facility allows the students to search for the information at the click of a mouse. They need not rummage through books at the library in search of a study material or a research work. It also pays to improve the students’ knowledge of English.

The Union government will provide tablet PCs at a cost of Rs 1,338 to students. Since the entire campus goes wi-fi, students can browse the internet anywhere on the campus. As of the now, the connectivity is being provided to buildings and in later stages the entire campus will be made wi-fi compliant, the registrar explained.

Davangere university has purchased 120 computers exclusively for the project. A batch of four students will be provided a computer.

The varsity has asked the affiliated colleges to secure internet connection. The monthly service charge comes to around Rs 100.

Prakash said two lecturers were deputed to attend a seminar held in Chennai on successful implementation of the project. The programme would be a reality by March next year.

Students too would be made aware of the facility and if necessary, he added.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/214013/davangere-university-set-become-wi.html)

National Knowledge Network to link 15,000 colleges on Cabinet agenda (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/national-knowledge-network-to-link-15-00.../405599/)

Database to regulate transfers of medical staff

The Health and Family Welfare Department is in its final stage of compiling a database of nearly 45,000 medical officers and other staff for the effective enforcement of the Karnataka Civil Services (Regulation of Transfer of Medical

Officer and other Staff) Act, 2011, under which transfers of medical officers and staff in the department would be regulated.

read more:- http://ibnlive.in.com/news/database-to-regulate-transfers-of-medical-staff/217306-60-115.html

Want to set up an industry? Log on to Kaigarika Bhoomi

The GIS-based programme enables people to access info on industrial areas

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Friday launched “Kaigarika Bhoomi,” a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based programme to manage industrial areas in the State.

http://www.deccanherald.com/images/editor_images1/2012/01/06/state-kaigarika-bhoomi-DVS.jpg

Kaigarika Bhoomi enables people, especially investors, access information about existing industrial areas - like status of occupancy, availability of plots, etc.
Besides, the extent of land available for investors can also be obtained through the system. The system has been developed by Rolta India Limited.

Information of any industrial area can be obtained by logging on to the official website of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) - www.kiadb.in
For instance, if one wants to know about the availability of land for industrial purposes in, say, Bellary district, one needs to click on the map of Bellary available on the website. All information, including location of the available land, extent, availability of infrastructure and others will pop up.

Principal Secretary to Industries and Commerce department K Jyotiramalingam said Kaigarika Bhoomi is a tool for collection, analysing, retrieving and managing the data, pertaining to land assets of all 136 industrial areas of, covering 40,000 acres of land of the KIADB.

The primary objective of the programme is to bring in transparency in the day-to-day functioning of the Board and to ensure orderly development of the industrial areas.
It also helps attract more domestic and foreign investment, he added.

The chief minister also launched a website for the proposed Global Investors’ Meet - II, scheduled to be held on June 7 and 8, this year. The website not only offers information about the GIM - II, but also the progress made in GIM - I, held in 2010.

Minister for Commerce and Industries Murugesh Nirani said the department will soon launch an innovative programme to encourage youth to turn into entrepreneurs in the State. The department will involve industry bodies in implementing the programme, he added.

Steps are also being taken to ensure availability of skilled labours to the industry in the State. The department wants to impart training to educated youth, who can be employed by reputed companies, he said.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/217297/want-set-up-industry-log.html

Transport Department to be a paperless zone

The department is planning to adopt ERP

Imagine a scenario when all your future transactions with the Transport Department will be done online. You may apply for a driving licence online, get an appointment for the test and approach the regional transport office on the appointed date without once filling up a form on paper.

And, if you need a certified copy of the registration certificate of your vehicle, you may approach the nearest RTO and get the authenticated document. And if you had applied for a clearance certificate to get the vehicle and its ownership transferred from one RTO to another, you can just show the SMS received from the originating RTO at the destination RTO that confirms ‘no dues' from the vehicle, to get the work done.

Paperless office

These are some of the benefits the public are likely to get in the coming fiscal. The Transport Department has almost finalised the technical modules for implementing the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), while the tendering process is under way to outsource the job of digitising all documents.

There are plans to scan all records, including those pertaining to vehicle ownership, tax payment and driving licence, and store them at two levels — one at the local level and another at the central data pool in compressed format, said Transport Commissioner T. Sham Bhat. Copies of these documents can be made available on demand, he said.

All future transactions will be done electronically and data stored securely. There will be no scope for use of paper in any transaction, he said. On the issue of the possible loss of data at the local as well as central levels, Joint Commissioner of Transport (Environment and E Governance) L. Hemanth Kumar said the department may go for “hot-swap memory” to avoid any such untoward incident. The data could be stored at multiple locations and can be retrieved easily.

Signature verification

All application forms, including the signature of the applicant, original documents required to support the application and more will be scanned and stored. For any future transactions, in the nature of transfer of ownership of vehicle or renewal of driving licence which requires verification of applicant's signature, the same could be done electronically, just likes the banks verify customers' signature, Mr. Hemanth Kumar said.

Savings

While the department is yet to create a business module to derive income from offering data to general public, it expects a lot of savings in the form of space used to store records and improving the aesthetics in its RTOs. Moreover, substantial time could be saved as the documents will be available at the click of the mouse instead of going through voluminous records. The department has files and documents dating back to 60 years, which will be scanned and digitally stored.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2784586.ece

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6904/ksrtcegov.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/100/ksrtcegov.jpg/)
-- Udayavani

Rs 750-cr outlay likely for spatial data infrastructure

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/multimedia/dynamic/00890/nsdi_890343f.jpg

For strengthening the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), an outlay of Rs 750 crore has been planned during the 12th Plan.

Speaking at the 11th annual meet of National Spatial Data Infrastructure conference, Mr Swarna Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India, said “Since we are moving to the next level of spatial data creation, State level data centres are crucial and a portion of the Plan outlay will be set aside for creating such centres. Karnataka is a leader in these technologies having established the first SDI and State Geo-portal in the country, besides having geospatial data centres in all the districts. I am sure, other states will emulate this.”

“By setting up SDIs, states and union territories can derive full advantage of the Web and should create SDI to enable Survey of India move spatial data into Web information and Web services from network of distributed Geo-portals,” he added.

Creating SDIs will be immensely useful in local planning initiatives across the State.

“This is the most opportune time for the State governments to bring in their data sets in a standard form through the Web and other communication technologies such as cell phones and mobile devices,” explained Mr Rao.

Survey of India currently provides 1:50,000 scale topographical map. It plans to provide the entire data on the Web through India Geo-portal by June 30.

Web Map Services

Mr Rao said Survey of India will soon provide Web Map Services (WMS) of data derived from 1:10,000 scale topographic maps of the entire country using hybrid methodology in the largest surveying and mapping operation in the world.

“The enhanced scale will provide a good opportunity to various State governments for renovating their cadastral maps and improving their accuracy. This is a big task but we are confident of completing it in three years. We have started a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh and it would be expanded across the country progressively,” he said.

When 1:10,000 scale topographic data are generated, Survey of India would provide minimum attribution information, which should enable various GIS-based applications.

Task Force

The Karnataka Government is planning to set up a task force for outlining a policy on geo-spatial governance to bring in transparency and accountability. Mr M.N. Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, IT, BT and Science and Technology, said the policy seeks to use geo-spatial data for planning and executing various development projects and utility services.

The Government had appointed two senior-most scientists and ex-employees of ISRO as the members of the task force on g-governance, he said.

Mr Rao said the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has taken up several initiatives to build the capacities spatial data creation. The country needs nearly five lakh people whoneed to be spatially literate in the next five years to make use of these data sets coming through networking infrastructure created.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/article2793285.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home

India gets set to adopt IPv6

HP partners with Government of Karnataka and IIIT-B to help enterprises adopt the new Internet address standard

With the reservoir of available IP addresses fast depleting, governments around the world are putting the finishing touches to their plans to migrate their country’s Internet infrastructure to the new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) protocol, that offers billions of new addresses. The Government of India has set a deadline of March 31, 2012 for all service providers to transition to IPv6. The Government of Karnataka (GoK) has taken a major initiative to help enterprises make the transition, through a public-private project. It today signed a partnership agreement with the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) and technology vendor HP to conduct a pilot project that will help organizations in Karnataka through a smooth transition to IPv6.

The current IPv4 protocol is a 32-bit addressing system and has a theoretical limit of four billion IP addresses -- the last of which have just been distributed to the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). Migrating to the 128-bit IPv6 means billions of new IP addresses will become available. The new Internet Protocol is also more secure and offers the promise of speed; it is 10 times faster. This makes it ideal for high-bandwidth applications like multi-casting.

The demand for IP addresses is fast increasing as more consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets and now, Internet-enabled TVs, connect directly to the Internet. Users are also bringing their mobile devices into the enterprise and connecting these to corporate networks.

For enterprises in India, transitioning to IPv6 is essential to keep up with the current Internet growth, as well to develop new Internet applications, new markets and to serve citizens in new ways. But the transition to IPv6 has been slow, because the fundamental Internet infrastructure has not adapted to the new Internet protocol, even though it was introduced in 1999. The migration to IPv6 is also a mammoth task as it involves multiple stakeholders like service providers, system integrators, organizations, and numerous departments and authorities at the central and state level.

However, the IPv6 Task Force, which officially oversees the country's transition from the old IPv4 protocol to the new one, said almost all major ISPs are now providing enterprise IPv6 services.

This three way partnership will set off a pilot project through an innovation lab set up by HP at IIIT-B. The lab is called HP Network University and the objectives of the pilot project are to:

Identify major the challenges for organizations in adopting IPv6
Develop solutions for these challenges through education, technology and process improvements
Provide advice and resource for enterprises and government bodies in Karnataka
Actively promote the adoption of IPv6 in other Indian states


http://informationweek.in/Internet/12-01-13/2012_India_gets_set_to_adopt_IPv6.aspx

Soon, order handicrafts at the click of a mouse

Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation (KSHDC), a Government of Karnataka subsidiary, is toying with the idea of introducing online sale of handicrafts on a pilot basis in the city.

Considering that city’s growing traffic is driving less customers to handicrafts showroom, the KSHDC plans to introduce online sales in Bangalore. Products� available at the outlet will be put up for sale online. Ordered handicraft items would be delivered on the same day.

KSHDC managing director, Ashok Kumar Singh, told Express that they were working on shortlisting a courier firm and a bank for online transactions.

Besides, customers need not travel to the handicrafts showroom on M G Road to take a look at the products.

Singh said that online sales would be launched after other processes were completed. The KSHDC enjoys a goodwill among its customers, both in domestic and foreign, and this has helped the corporation reach customers across the world.

The purpose of introducing online sales is to know the response of public. If it is patronised well, the KSHDC plans to come up out with other similar ideas, remarked Singh.

Products to be Updated Immediately

Singh said the corporation immediately would replace items that are sold out. Also, the artisans, from whom the handicrafts are purchased are told to deliver the selected items immediately.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/soon-order-handicrafts--at-the-click-of-a-mouse/220407-60-119.html

The extension of e-governance processes to the tax collection regime has made the system “transparent, efficient and accountable”, State Commissioner of Commercial Taxes Pradeep Singh Kharola has said.

Participating in a meeting with members of the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) here on Tuesday, Mr. Kharola said that the coverage of e-Sugam, the online e-filing system for the Value Added Tax (VAT) system in the State, had reached 90 per cent.

“The next step in transparency will be reached when we start making electronic refunds to taxpayers,” Mr. Kharola said. He said that “complications” inherent in the VAT system, unlike those relating to Income Tax refunds, remained to be sorted out. “Within the financial year we will start making electronic refunds in a planned manner,” he said. He said that the department was trying out software that would enable it to “automate the process of refunds”.

Observing that the department had changed from being a regulator to a “service provider”, Mr. Kharola said that planned legislation along the lines of a Right to Service Act would require the department to set time-bound benchmarks for its services to taxpayers.

Mr. Kharola observed that e-filing systems had transformed the interaction between the department and taxpayers. For instance, delivery notes (documents accompanying consignments) used to take eight to 10 days to process. Now they were being issued “almost instantaneously”, he said.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2812863.ece)

India gets set to adopt IPv6



http://informationweek.in/Internet/12-01-13/2012_India_gets_set_to_adopt_IPv6.aspx

Better place for this is 'India Infotech' thread as it is not e-governance.

Also FYI, I have recently created a 'India e-governance' thread for e-governance in India.

BANGALORE: One headache less for Class 10 students: the pre-university education department has released the modalities of online admission which goes live this summer. The proposed system has been uploaded to the public domain and is open for public comments.

Admissions for colleges in Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Hubli-Dharwad, Davanagere, Tumkur and Shimoga will go online. A brochure giving details of the process and colleges part of it will be released the day after the last date of the SSLC examination. It will include the college seat matrix, fees, subjects, languages and infrastructure.

The application form seeks very few details from students as the rest will be fetched from the SSLC database. The student has to enter only her choice of college. The form captures a maximum of 40 options and a minimum of three. The department hasn't yet chosen the mode of submission.

The first option is students submit the application by keying the SSLC registration number and preference of colleges. In the case of quota, the student will have to indicate it. The student gets a PDF of the form.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/PU-admission-to-go-online-in-nine-districts/articleshow/11546688.cms)

‘e-Sugam has benefited trade, but needs improvement'

The road check-post, loathed by trade and industry as a point of corruption and a cause for the delay in the movement of goods, is now getting the grudging admiration from the same sections that have for long cursed it. The general consensus in industry is that the implementation of e-Sugam, an acronym for Simple Uploading of Goods Arrivals and Movements, since June 2010, for the transport of goods across the State, has made the system less prone to abuse.

The online system, implemented by the State Commercial Taxes Department, in association with the National Informatics Centre, requires registered dealers to submit details of every consignment valued at more than Rs. 20,000. Upon filing the application, each consignment is provided a unique number, which has to be produced at the check-post. Pradeep Singh Kharola, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, says entries can be accessed from any of the more than 70 stationary and mobile check posts across the State.

Transparent and accountable

Every day, more than 70,000 e-Sugam numbers are being generated. “e-Sugam has made the system more transparent and accountable,” Mr. Kharola observed recently at a meeting organised by the Karnataka Small-Scale Industries Association (KASSIA). Mr. Kharola said those accompanying the consignment need not even carry a printout of the online submission. “Nearly two tonnes of paper is being generated currently, we want to move towards a completely paperless system,” he said.

“e-Sugam is really sugama (convenient) for trade and industry, but it needs to be fine-tuned,” says B.T. Manohar, Chairman, State Taxes Committee of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Mr. Manohar, who is also member of the State Advisory Board of the Value Added Tax, said the system is skewed against smaller units. A notification issued by the Commercial Taxes Department on December 23, 2011 listed 29 classes of commodities that would mandatorily require e-Sugam compliance.

Small units' concerns

Many of these units run by small entrepreneurs lack the technical competence and economic scale to reap the full benefits of compliance with the e-Sugam system, Prakash N. Raikar, KASSIA president, told The Hindu. Mr. Raikar said the minimum threshold beyond which e-Sugam is mandatory be raised from Rs. 20,000 per consignment to Rs. 1 lakh. Those running “tiny” units, each with an annual turnover of less than Rs. 1 lakh, ought to be exempted from the scheme, he said. “Many of these people are of working class origin, first-time entrepreneurs who are non-literate and with little computer skills,” he pointed out.

Many do not even have a computer, let alone a broadband connection to make online submissions, he observed. He suggested that the list of items be restricted to those the Department identifies as being particularly prone to tax evasion.

Linkage to VAT

Mr. Raikar said the system, in its current form, does not provide any “incentives” to users. Observing that since the VAT system requires a trail (in electronic form or on paper), he asks: “Does the Department have an action plan to link the e-Sugam system to invoices and the VAT refunds?”

Refunds currently take nearly two years to materialise, he said. “Small units, which are starved of working capital, find this killing,” he remarked.

Mr. Manohar said although the system has been a “game changer,” it needs modifications. The Department's servers need to be upgraded so that they can “cope with the load.” In some districts of the State the e-Sugam system remains unavailable, he pointed out.

The validity of the e-Sugam number is only ten days, which is unsuitable for the transport of goods over long distances, he observed. “A consignment from Kolkata to Bangalore can sometimes take 15 days, by which time the validity of the e-Sugam receipt lapses. The system is also unsuitable for the transport of goods in small lots”, he added.

Considering that the e-Sugam system is “mission critical”, it ought to be backed by a helpline that works round the clock and throughout the year, Mr. Manohar said. “Helplines in each district must be manned by technically qualified personnel who can help users,” he suggested.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7033/gasgt.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/256/gasgt.jpg/)
-- Udayavani

Guruprasad T N , January 27 2012, DHNS:

Educational institutions now have new ways to be closer with the parents of their students.

A case in point is the novel method adopted by Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshawara (SDM) Educational Society. Online Student Informational Database linked to , a website which can be accessed through administrational software is an outcome of this effort.

Online student informational database is an abstract of administrational software- Educational Enterprise Resource Planning and Management System, which can be used by students as well as their parents.

Speaking to the City Herald, the head of the software development cell and SDM Educational Society Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Pereira said that both students and their parents get a password to enter the website.

They can get information about the attendance, marks, library, fees, and examination time table and about other activities. The software can be used for online exams as well wherein the students can get their marks within half an hour.

The design

Lawrence Pirera said that the institution took 5 to 6 years to develop this administrational software. The software cell comprised 4 staff and 4 other persons for testing and implementation. The facility has already been implemented in 40 affiliated institutions and has been a boon for the parents as well as students. “As per our knowledge, this is an unique software,” he said.

Good response

Giving details about the database, II year MCJ student Madhav opined that it is a very useful website. “We need not seek any help from the college staff or administration members. It’s really student friendly”.

The online student informational database was inaugurated at Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College in Ujire on January 17 and is being used by 40 schools and colleges affiliated to SDM Educational Society. Next year, the facility will be extended to all the 48 schools and colleges run by the Society.

“The response is inspiring from the students, parents as well as from the teaching staff. The credit goes to SDM Educational Society President Dr D Veerendra Heggade and Ujire SDM College Principal Dr B Yashovarma. Their inspiration always motivated us,” said Pereira.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/222499/networking-parents-know-their-kids.html)

I started the thread with a statement:

Let me start with a small suggestion. A few days back it was raining heavily in the coastal region. Government declared one particular day as a holiday. But many students and parents were not aware of this and so went to school in wet cloths to just return back. In this case if the school administration had mobile numbers of parents it could have just sent one SMS informing all the parents about holiday. The SMS may be sent by schools for informing so many things starting from simple things like early closing of school to complex things like informing about examination results.

Vijaykumar Patil

Soon, students at VTU can fill exam forms and get hall tickets online, and know the results fast.

Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), the only technological university in Karnataka and one of the biggest in India, is all set to achieve another major milestone soon when it will virtually revolutionise the “evaluation system” by introducing “Digital Evaluation System” (DES) for all undergraduate, postgraduate and research/doctoral programmes.

If the pace with which the initiatives taken in this direction is any indication, the new technological order will become operational by the beginning of the next academic session (2011-12). And, the VTU will be the first university in Karnataka to have a DES.

Promoting quality

With its stated vision “to become an outstanding technological university at the cutting edge of science and technology that produces world-class knowledge-delivery, research, extension and leadership in technology innovation for industry and society,” the measure to add a new dimension to the evaluation system could also be seen in response to the expected initiatives under the 11th Five-Year Plan, which while dealing with the higher education system in India, emphasised on “speedy and substantive academic and administrative reforms for promotion of quality and excellence in the university.”

The VTU, with 186 engineering colleges affiliated to it and offering 28 UG programmes and 71 PG programmes and research programmes, has an annual intake of about 60,800 at the UG level and 20,000 at the PG level. It has 13 QIP (Quality Improvement Programme) centres at its various affiliated colleges and 16 Extension Centres offering PG programmes. There are over 2,305 departments recognised as research centres.

Such a massive campus spread across the entire State also brings in greater responsibilities and demands a high degree of efficiency and transparency in administration. Technology is one of the most important tools in achieving them and make value additions to the ‘system'. For any university, conducting examinations and declaring error-free results is the biggest responsibility and underscores the need for the highest degree of efficiency, transparency and speed.

Thus, the VTU is working on its plan to introduce DES and enabling its examination system to become efficient. It is part of reforms in the examination/evaluation system and also to reach out to all the candidates enrolled with the university through technology, said Vice-Chancellor H. Maheshappa.

Integrated system

Highlighting its salient features to The Hindu EducationPlus, he said the system is well designed for integrated examination management. Under the proposed system an enrolled candidate who wishes to appear for the university examinations should be able to fill his examination form online, rather, the form should be available to the candidate at his or her finger-tips.

The eligibility of the students who have examination forms will be ensured through software specifically designed for the purpose. The ‘admission tickets' will be made available online so that the students take a direct print-copy with the help of the software and carry the tickets to the examination centre.

The Internal Assessments marks will be uploaded to the server as and when finalised.

Question bank

A ‘Question Bank' will be created for the purpose of generating question papers. The University will take the services of well-qualified and experienced faculty for this purpose. The question bank in each subject will be updated for every changed scheme.

The question papers will be generated through an automated system under the control of Registrar (Evaluation) and supplied through the Internet-enabled software to every affiliated college.

The Karnataka Government provides VPN (Virtual Private Network) system to educational institutions. The VTU is already in the process of getting one.

The ‘answer scripts' of the candidates will be digitised for evaluation. Once the VPN is available, no teacher needs to move out of campus to evaluate the answer scripts. The physical presence of the valuators will be ensured during the valuation with technological interface.

More economical

“This process will be more economical than the conventional method of evaluation as well as it will expedite processing of results with 100 per cent accuracy. Once we introduce this new digitised valuation system, I am quite sure that our students will get the results in a record time,” said Prof. Maheshappa.

For their post-results documents, students need not come to the university, they can get the documents at their fingertips.

However, certain documents, which required high security-modules, will be issued by the University. Yet, there would not be any delay in the issuance of such documents.

The VTU, as part of its ongoing endeavour to introduce such hi-tech evaluation system for all UG and PG programmes, has already implemented the Digital Evaluation System for the answer scripts that are generated through the Course Work Examinations for research programmes, said Registrar (Evaluation) S.A. Kori.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/education/article1092911.ece)

Express News Service
Last Updated : 27 Jan 2012 10:18:46 AM IST

MYSORE: State Election Commissioner C R Chikkamath said the Election Commission is contemplating introducing e-voting system for urban population to enhance the total percentage of voting. He, however, added that political will is essential for the successful implementation of this programme in the state.

He was speaking after launching Online MBA programme of Karnataka State Open University at Manasagangotri on Thursday.

Chikmath said, “e-voting was introduced in Gandhinagar Corporation elections in Gujarat recently, but the result was not expected. Now, the government wants to introduce it in other urban local bodies,” he said.

He said the percentage of urban voting is very low. Usually, 50 to 60 per cent voters are participating in the poll process in urban areas and sometimes it was only 45 per cent. Many professionals are finding it difficult to cast their votes for various reasons.

This is indirectly paving way for bogus voting and giving scope for malpractice in the present system. Hence, it is the right time to introduce e-voting,” the state election commissioner said.

"E-voting had not got the expected result in Gujarat. State Election Commission is planning to rectify the same and introduce e-voting in Karnataka,” Chikmath added, during his address.

“We have to convince the people about the proposal’s success,” he said.

EB (http://expressbuzz.com/states/karnataka/state-ec-mulls-e-voting-system-for-urban-areas/357424.html)

RENUKA PHADNIS

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00907/29MN_WEATHER_907799e.jpg
Feather forecast for fishermen is available in Kannada also from the Ocean Information system installed at Deputy Director, Department of Fisheries office at Fishing harbour in Bunder in Mangalore on Sunday 29th

Bangalore-based company develops software and hardware

The electronic display board installed at the Fisheries Department in Mangalore's Bunder area will soon display information on weather conditions in Kannada.

Muralidhar, Project Engineer, Webstar Software Private Limited, the Bangalore-based company, which has developed software and hardware for the electronic display board, said that the company was making the regional language the default language on all the installed display boards, including in other States, based on feedback from users.

He was speaking to The Hindu at an exhibition held as part of a meeting on “Science and Technology: New Opportunities and Challenges” organised by the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy, and the Science and Technology Department, Government of Karnataka, in Mangalore University on Sunday.

SERVICING

The company would service the display boards that had been installed, beginning with those close to the Bangalore-based company, he said. The system would be updated initially in Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Andhra Pradesh. The work of updating the systems with the regional language software would be done within three months, he said. The existing software would have to be updated. The operating system was Microsoft and the application built upon that was by the company, he said.

INFORMATION

The display board shows information sent from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad.

Nagaraj Kumar, scientist in-charge, Potential Fishing Zone Mission, INCOIS, said that fishermen and NGOs in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had stated that getting information in local language was time-consuming as it followed English and Hindi on the display board. So it was decided to retain information in the local language to enable users to get information quickly. Information in English and Hindi would be provided if users asked for it, he said. There were more than 100 such systems installed in coastal areas of various States. In Karnataka, such a system had been installed in Karwar, Honnavar, Bhatkal, Tadadi and Mangalore, Mr. Muralidhar said.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2844597.ece)

Online land conversion service launched (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2849184.ece)

It will help prevent corruption, says Deputy Commissioner Ponnuraj
Online land conversion service was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj at his office here on Tuesday.

He said the new service would prevent corrupt practices during the land conversion process.

Under the new system, the applications should be submitted in the prescribed format along with the necessary documents at Nemmadi Kendra or the grama panchayat. The process of land conversion would be completed in 30 days after the submission of the application.

Reforms

Mr. Ponnuraj said the district administration was planning to introduce reforms in land conversion system.

Efforts were on to evolve a system for online submission of applications and the necessary documents.

The information on the stage at which the application was being processed would be provided online in future.

He said the system of providing information to the public on the various stages related to the disposal of files at the Deputy Commissioner's office had been introduced in the district.

The information on the stage at which the application was being processed could be availed by entering the application number.

The public would get to know the reasons for which the applications were rejected, and get them cleared by furnishing the necessary documents.

The information on the applications submitted for renewal of gun license, the details on the spending of local area development funds of MPs and MLAs would also be displayed on the website of Deputy Commissioner's office in coming days, he said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner M.K. Srirangaiah and Shimoga City Municipal Council Commissioner P.G. Ramesh were present.

BANGALORE, FEB. 3:

Karnataka has made a modest beginning in using intelligent transport system (ITS) in urban transport management, said Ms V. Manjula, Principal Secretary, Karnataka Urban Development Department.

Addressing a conference on “Intelligent transport system for strategic urban development in Indian cities', Ms Manjula said “ITS is the integration of information and communication technology with transport infrastructure, vehicles and users. It enables information to be collected and shared in order to help people make more informed travel choices, make journey more efficient and help to reduce the impact of transport on the environment.”

“Keeping these principles intact in Karnataka, few ITS projects initiated are B-Track in Bangalore by the traffic police.

Passenger information system (PIS) is by the BMTC and the vehicle location system (VLS) for city buses in Mysore,” she added.

As the State is getting urbanised at a faster pace, the use of ITS is becoming increasingly necessary.

Ms Manjula said “Karnataka is one of the more urbanised States in the country with 38 per cent of population living in urban areas. This population is spread over 237 census towns, with almost 66 per cent of the State's urban population concentrated in 23 cities and Bangalore accounting for almost 11 per cent of the urban population.”

She explained that that ITS is very crucial in managing traffic in urban areas as vehicle density is increasing day by day.

“The growth of urban Karnataka has also brought in its wake of steep increase in the number of motor vehicles, the growth rate ranging from 10 to 14 per cent a year.

The number of vehicles has increased from 16 lakh in 1991 to 83 lakh in two decades,” she said.

B-TRACK

In B-Track project, the traffic management centre processes information collected through surveillance and enforcement cameras installed at various junctions across the Bangalore city, information conveyed through walkie-talkies by traffic policemen, and the plans signal phase timing alterations/congestion monitoring etc.

Information on congestion is conveyed through SMS to registered users of its service and flashed on information boards at vantage points.

GIS/PIS

BMTC has implemented a pilot project on ITS here an automatic vehicle location system is introduced in a limited way by installing GPS units devices on 189 buses.

Buses are tracked on real time basis and all the GPS units are controlled and monitored from a single control room.

Where as for PIS, BMTC has installed at select bus stops and at Bangalore International Airport which gives information on next bus, expected time, route number etc.

VLS

Ms Manjula said VLS is a world Bank-GEF funded project being implemented in Mysore city assisted by SUTP.

This project will be completed by March this year and will become operational from April.

In this project Central control station, automatic vehicle location system, passenger information system are all integrated to one control room through ITS.

anil.u@thehindu.co.in

Business Line (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/logistics/article2857564.ece?ref=wl_industry-and-economy)

* Announcement comes at concluding session of ITS seminar

The Union Urban Development Ministry will fund 80 per cent of the cost of preparing master plan/ detailed project report for intelligent transport system (ITS) in important cities across the country, including those in Karnataka.

A senior Ministry official announced this at the concluding session of a seminar on ITS jointly organised by UDD, governments of Japan and Karnataka here on Friday. Karnataka was keen on implementing ITS initially in three cities — Mysore, Bangalore and Hubli-Dharwad.

“Let the experience in these cities be pilot projects as Karnataka has been the role model for other,” the official said.

The seminar was attended by many big names in the field of electronics from Japan, which is keen on implementing ITS in India, particularly the southern States.

Addressing these companies, the official said that low-cost technology is abundantly available to develop ITS. “If you are keen on implementing ITS in India, you should deploy low-cost technology. The companies will not lose anything because the volumes of deployment are very high,” he said.

At the same time, the companies should explore to make the best utilisation of the existing infrastructure such as mobile telephone network, he suggested.

Also, the companies should be prepared to set up manufacturing units in India by creating Indian subsidiaries, as the country is keen on developing indigenous technology as well as creation of employment.

On the role of Japan International Cooperation Agency, which has been funding various projects in India, he urged the agency to fund certain pilot projects of ITS in India, to test the proof of concept.

The agency may fund preparation of detailed project reports and support the national architecture for ITS which is being developed by UDD. The next phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which may be launched this year, will include funding ITS.

Commissioner, Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Karnataka, V. Manjula, said that a few initiatives of ITS are being adopted in the State, including B-TRAC in Bangalore and the World Bank-funded ITS in Mysore. She said that integration of information and communication technology with the transport infrastructure, vehicles and users, will help people to make more informed travel choices even as it helps improve traffic flow.

Throughout the day, representatives from Japanese companies Nippon Koei, ITS Japan, Zero-Sum Wireless Solutions, East Nippon Expressway Company, Toshiba, Hitachi, Nagoya Electric Worksco, Mitsubushi Heavy Industries and Toyota Tshusho Electronics made presentations on different aspects of ITS.

Yasuhiro Okumura from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Taro Okawa from JICA were present.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/article2857907.ece)

x-post.


Wonder whether the GPS can be used to find out whether police vehicles are parked properly or illegally on footpath. If GPS has enough space resolution ability then this may be possible. In Mangaluru, the Police in competition with the others violate the parking rule on footpath.

On the other hand Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is also used for detecting overspeeding, illegal parking, congestion pricing, etc in countries which have well developed ITS (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, etc). But, I think in Mysuru ITS will be used only for buses with features like Operational and Maintenance Specification Fleet Management System (Route Planning, etc), Automatic Vehicle tracking system, Electronic Fare Collection, Real-time Passenger Information System, Traffic Management (ATCS), Incident and Emergency Management System, etc. In Bengaluru metro will have many ITS features and a few buses are already having some display elements but how well ITS of metro will be integrated with ITS of bus transportation is not known to me. It looks neither in Mysuru nor in Bengaluru personal vehicles are part of ITS. No idea whether police vehicles form a part of Incident and Emergency Management System. What is more important is how easily the ITS systems, currently under installation, could be enhanced to incorporate other features and modes of transportation. Ultimately we need super integration of ITS in cities with each other and also with highways. A driver should be able to run his vehicle in any city and in any highway with the same ITS gadgets mounted in it and the same type of keyboard/display should be available everywhere. Mostly so called service-oriented architecture could enable this.

^^ Will ITS for Karnataka will be for all vehicles? In Bangalore it includes some kind of traffic information system for all vehicles. Will ITS include non-city roads like highways and will cover whole Karnataka?

http://i40.tinypic.com/20trpch.jpg

Cameras will keep an eye on compost plant (http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article2857054.ece)

Software solution for better governance

A Bangalore-based organisation has created a software solution that automates workflows end-to-end in gram panchayats (GPs). The solution, which records the lifecycle of processes, has been implemented in 15 villages in Davangere, said Shankara K. Prasad, founder-managing trustee, Sampoorna Swaraj Foundation, which has developed the software.

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00914/05BGEDGEPIC3_914258f.jpg

Thirty-five thousand residents of the villages, staff, officers, members, and chairpersons of five GPs, implementing agencies and line departments, are using the solution, which will be replicated in 75 villages, all in Davangere, by June, he said.
Automating workflows

Mr. Prasad said the software solution, called Sampoorna Panchayat Work Flow Automation, is a single window for the village citizen for everything to do with the Government. The solution encompasses the entire gamut of GP functions including all transactions, decisions and delivery of services as envisaged by the Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 and the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act.

It monitors the activities of the GP on a real-time basis. If a citizen in the village wants a birth certificate or has issued a cheque, he can log in with his user identity and password to find what stage his request is at. All GPs have a computer so they automatically turn into centres where people can use the software, he said.

Residents do not have to go out of the village for any service. “GPs handle crores but people have no idea what is happening with the money. They stand in queues or go from office to office to find out where the cheques are held up,” he said.

The software solution uses the Open standard architecture and a process-centric architecture. Programmed on Java, it is developed with an ‘enterprise' perspective with Six Sigma-like processes to check that each process throughout the software is perfect in what it seeks to do. A system of access control is used to give various levels of access to the user.

The levels that each person has control over is related to his role and responsibility. The president of the GP has the rights to manage access control. The solution is interactive, transactional and can be scaled up.

The resident can use the software himself (if he is trained) and can also take the assistance of a village computer coordinator. Familiarity with computers is not necessary.

As the solution has a Web-based architecture, any device with Internet capability can allow easy access to it. All information about GP is in the local language (Kannada).
Interact and participate

The software also has a portal which allows citizen-community participation. Officers and elected officials at taluk panchayats, zilla panchayats and the Ministry for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj can interact with individual GPs and access information about each GP. Citizens can interact with any GP official using the messaging system; report a grievance and track its progress; and approve payment to a contractor only after their grievance has been attended to. They can access the financial and scheme information reports of employment, housing, and drinking water programmes, he said.http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article2860803.ece

Government announces national e-gov awards 2012

SIS of Uttar Pradesh receives outstanding performance in citizen-centric service delivery

Departments of administrative reforms and public grievances and department of information technology, government of India have recently announced the national e*governance awards 2012, in seven categories. The shortlisted projects and respective departments will be conferred during the annual two day national conference on e-governance, being jointly organised by the two departments on February 9-10 in Bhubaneswar.

Project ‘e-Checkpost’ of the commercial tax department, of government of Karnataka and NIC has won the gold award under the excellence in government process re-engineering category. In citizen-centric service delivery category, while Sugarcane Information System (SIS) of government of Uttar Pradesh has been conferred with a gold award, the Pregnancy, Child Tracking & Health Services System (PCTS) of government of Rajasthan and national informatics centre (NIC) settled with silver.

The mid-day meal authority in the basic education department of UP has qualified for the most innovative use of technology in e-governance award category. The other categories include, ‘innovative use of ICT by PSUs for customer’s benefits’, ‘exemplary re-use of ICT based solutions’, ‘innovative use of ICT by PSUs for customer benefits’, ‘best government portal’ and ‘specific sectoral award: focus sector for 2011-12: local government’.

The conference is 15th in the series. Last year, it was last held in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. This year the meet would explore how government departments could work collectively to simplify access to public information and ensure anywhere and anytime accessibility for all, accuracy and privacy of the information and analyse large data repositories to support actionable decision-making especially at the lowest level of governance, i.e., in gram panchayats and municipalities.

The two-day meet will have deliberations on key issues related to e-governance such as democratisation of information, social audit and local government.

http://i40.tinypic.com/153y5u9.jpg

Sandhya C D’Souza, Mangalore, Feb 7, 2012, DHNS:

* Children get special coloured ID Cards

Dakshina Kannada district Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan known for its innovations has now developed a new software, which will help keep track of the details of the challenged children in the district.

The software, ‘Children with special needs database,’ was designed in 2010 on pilot basis and data about challenged children was collected through a census and was unloaded to the software. However, the department has now submitted a proposal of Rs 1.50 lakh under the ‘challenged fund’ in a view of developing the software.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, SSA DK District Coordinator N Shivaprakash said that each challenged child in the district has been given a card with a colour code that describes the disability.

SSA identifies 10 disabilities and so far 4,738 children in age group of 6 to 14 years have been identified in these categories in a survey conducted in August 2011. As many as, 1953 children have been identified with low vision, 33 are totally blind, 104 have impaired hearing, 350 have impaired speech, 773 have orthopaedic disabilities, 870 have mental retardation, 33 have cerebral palsy, 523 have multiple disability, 26 have learning disability and 73 have identified having autism spectrum disorder.

The software records the child’s name, age, address, disorder, various schemes the child has been enrolled for, various benefits received by the child, the education received by the child and many other details. With this software one can generate problem-wise, gender-wise, area-wise and other kinds of data.

With this, one can easily obtain the record of the child. SSA has a provision to enroll these children in the ‘Inclusive education resource centre’ present in each of the seven education blocks, which will help them to cope up with their disabilities. Each of these centres has two special teachers appointed by an NGO and three inclusive education resource teachers. The progress of the child can be charted in the software, says Shivprakash.

“This software is presently limited to SSA. By developing this software, we can easily coordinate with Women and Child Welfare department, Disabled and Senior Citizens department and other departments which provide facilities to the challenged children. The Joint Review Mission was pleased with the software and the State SSA may distribute this software to other districts too,” he said.

“Many a times, the same beneficiary may get the same disability equipment and benefits from different departments. With this software, we can avoid the overlap and distribute benefits to all beneficiaries. We can have an integrated and comprehensive data-base,” said Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr K N Vijayprakash.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/225368/software-track-challenged-kids.html)

Staff crunch: Smart card plan suffers set back (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/225401/staff-crunch-smart-card-plan.html)
Digital Recording System introduced in Mangaluru Akashvani

One of the problems pedestrians face other than cleanliness of footpath is branches of plants and trees projecting out of compound wall spreading over footpath. What I would like to have is a GPS based system from which anyone can send a SMS to corresponding official complaining about this with a photograph. The operator at the other end can close this request after attending it but can not delete data. If the complaint is send second time (after time required to attend complaint but before a duration for plants or trees to grow again) then system should alert higher ups and so on. Whether such a system is feasible?

KARWAR: Untraced addresses of Aadhaar card holders in coastal taluks of Uttara Kannada district has left postal authorities in a fix.

About 7,000 Aadhaar cards are lying in various post offices in Karwar, Ankola, Kumta Honnavar and Bhatkal taluk because these addresses were not traced. This has led to the talks whether Aadhaar cards were registered with fake or dummy addresses in Uttara Kannada. Two days ago, the postal department issued a release asking people who had registered for an Aadhaar card but have not yet received it to contact the nearest post office and take them.

Officials involved with registration of these cards say they had registered according to the guidelines issued by the government. But there are allegations that the procedure itself was wrong as a mere bank passbook was treated as 'address proof' and it's not difficult to open bank accounts.

Nagaraj Joshi, a social activist, points out that officials who were appointed in the registration centre to verify the address proof were either outsiders or had no knowledge about people who were furnishing different ID proofs. "They would just sign the form and some people must have exploited this," he said.

Dattaram, a resident of Karwar, said authorities should have taken care while issuing cards in sensitive areas like coastal belts. But clarifying the stand of postal department, P L Hadaginal, superintendent of posts, Karwar, said there were many cases where people registered for Aadhaar citing one place, but work in another place. This had happened in other districts as well. "To inform people and speed up the card delivery they issued the release," he said.

TOI (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-02-09/mangalore/31041595_1_aadhaar-cards-card-delivery-postal-department)

BANGALORE: Following the murder of a Visakhapatnam-based jeweller by three cabbies, Bangalore police are thinking of asking all tourist taxi operators to collect biometrics and make background checks on drivers employed by them.

"Yes, first we will seek suggestions from tour operators and taxi operators. Then we will go ahead with our plan," police commissioner BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji told TOI.

He said a similar drive has already been implemented for autorickshaw drivers, who now compulsorily have a display card showing their identity details.

A senior police officer said that with foreign tourists and businessmen landing in Bangalore daily, the onus is on cops to take steps to prevent a recurrence of Tuesday's ghastly murder. Forty-four-year-old Manoj Kumar Grandhi, head of Vaibhav Group from Andhra Pradesh, was killed by three cabbies.

"We need to bring in strict discipline among cab drivers, get them to mend their behaviour as well. They need to maintain discipline on the roads as I have found many of them not respecting motorists and pedestrians ," he said.

Joint commissioner of police (crime-east ) B Dayanand, said, a preliminary meeting with senior officers will be held before going in for any initiative regarding cabbies.

"The idea is good. But implementing it will take some time as we will have to consult taxi and tour operators ," he said.

"We ordered for background checks on tenants and domestic helps. But we have not made it mandatory as it depends on the landlords and households to do it for their safety. But many of them have followed it as they want to be on the safer side," Mirji added.

A taxi operator from RT Nagar, S Rishi Kumar, admitted that he would not take any of his drivers on their face value. "We follow a strict rule of obtaining at least two references. The referees have to have above board credentials and must be known to us, before we employ the drivers. We insist that each driver behaves courteously with customers," he said.

DCP (north-east ) R Ravikanthe Gowda said as the complaint was filed at the BIA police outpost, the case came under the jurisdiction of the Devanahalli court.

"Grandhi's body was taken to his native Visakhapatnam by his family members. We are in the process of questioning all the three accused separately ," another police officer said.

Gavin Dabreo, spokesperson for MERU Cabs, said all their 3,000-odd cabs are installed with GPS. "GPS helps in tracking cab movement. The customer details are filed online and there is 24/7 helpline call centre across the country. These three aspects ensure the safety of customers," he told TOI.

R Neelakantappa, general secretary , KSTDC-pre paid Taxi Owners Association said they direct their drivers to get a no objection certificate from his jurisdictional police station. "During the interview, we ask the candidates to produce driving license , voter ID and other documents. Now we have decided to check our drivers' antecedents," he said.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Cops-mull-biometrics-databank-for-cabbies/articleshow/11845077.cms)

I hope they use Aadhaar or NPR database instead of creating another database of biometrics.

The State's Department of Commercial Taxes was awarded the National Gold Award for excellence in ‘Government Process Reengineering'.

The award is administered by the Department of Administration Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), which is part of the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

Pradeep Singh Kharola, Commissioner of the Department of Commercial Taxes, accepted the award on behalf of the department at Bhubaneswar on Friday during the 15th national conference on e-Governance. The award was presented by Odisha Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare.

The Commercial Taxes Department's efforts in increasing the efficiency of commercial tax check-posts through the introduction of e-Sugam was recognised through this national award, a release said.

Minus paper trail

E-Sugam (Simple Uploading of Goods Arrival and Movements) has simplified the payment of commercial tax on goods. Earlier, when goods were transported, they would leave a voluminous paper trail that needed to be verified at commercial tax check-posts leading to delays, harassment and allegations of corruption.

With the introduction of e-Sugam three years ago, there has been no paper trail with the seller uploading the details of goods sold on to the department's website after which a unique e-Sugam number is issued.

This is the only piece of information that needs to be produced at the check-post while goods are verified. “e-Sugam is a win-win situation for both the traders and the department as traders are not harassed while tax collections have also become more efficient,” said Mr. Kharola.

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2884712.ece)

Read also first post on this page.

MANGALORE: Identifying Children With Special Needs (CWSN), their disabilities, needs and maintaining those details on record is necessary for proper implementation of schemes that are introduced by the government. The software developed by Dakshina Kannada district unit of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) will come in handy for the government to distribute benefits to such children.The software, which is called CWSN Database, records a disabled child's name, age, address, disorder, various schemes the child has been enrolled for, various benefits received by the child, and education details.

With this software, it will be easy for the government to generate problem-wise, gender-wise, area-wise data to introduce schemes. The government is expected to adopt the software in the state soon. SSA district deputy co-ordinator N Shivaprakash told TOI that the CWSN Database was designed in 2010 on a pilot basis. "The data about challenged children collected through a census was uploaded using the software. We have submitted a proposal to upgrade the software at a cost of Rs 1.50 lakh," he added.

"The software, which is limited to SSA, can also be used to co-ordinate with Women and Child Welfare department, disabled and senior citizens department and other departments' to implement welfare schemes in the state with little modifications," he explained. The joint review mission of SSA too was impressed with the software. "The state unit of SSA may distribute this software to other districts," Shivaprakash said.Another new initiative by SSA is that now each challenged child has been given a card with colour code that describes the nature of disability.

"As per SSA guidelines, there are 10 disabilities and so far 4,738 children in age group of 6 to 14 have been identified in a survey conducted in August 2011. As many as 1,953 children have been identified with low vision, 33 are totally blind, 104 have impaired hearing, 350 have impaired speech, 773 have orthopaedic disabilities, 870 have mental retardation, 33 have cerebral palsy, 523 have multiple disability, 26 have learning disability and 73 have identified with autism spectrum disorder," Shivaprakash said.

TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/A-new-software-just-for-kids-with-special-needs/articleshow/11880678.cms)

Bangalore, February 16 2012, DHNS:

The pilot project under Right to Services Act to be launched in four taluks on March 1

Citizens who enrol for the State government’s Right to Services (RTS) initiative will get a unique acknowledgement number for every application they submit.

Using the 15-digit number, coded to denote the district, block, department and service under which an application has been submitted, citizens can not only track the status of their applications online, but also get SMS alerts as soon as their files are processed.

The Karnataka Guarantee Of Services to Citizens’ Act, 2011, passed by the State legislature in December last, seeks to provide time-bound delivery of 151 services across 11 departments.

The pilot project, which will hold public servants accountable for delay in providing services, is scheduled to be launched on March 1 in one taluk each in Bidar, Chitradurga, Dharwad and Udupi districts.

Notified

The draft rules under the Act were notified by the Department of Public Administration and Reforms (DPAR) on February 14.

According to the rules, the designated officer will have to give an acknowledgement slip on receiving each application.

The slip should have the name of the applicant with address, date of application, acknowledgement number, name of the designated officer with designation and address, details of services sought and proposed date of delivery of services.

“Once a citizen files an application for a particular service coming under the schedule of the Act, he or she will be provided a digit number. They can track the status of applications online. They will also get an SMS alert as soon as their application is processed. A dedicated call centre will also be set up to reply to people’s queries on Right to Services.

They can get an update of the status of the applications by dialling the call centre,” Secretary, DPAR (Administrative Reforms), Shalini Rajneesh told Deccan Herald.

Mandatory display

The URL of the website to track the status of applications and the telephone number of the call centre will be announced shortly.

The rules make it mandatory that all information regarding the services provided by a particular office will have to be displayed on the notice board.

The services specified under the Act include birth and death certificates, income, caste certificates, registration of khatas and properties, learning and driving licences, permission for new water connections, sanction of building plan on sites measuring up to 2,400 square feet for residential dwellings, record of rights certificates and conversion of agriculture land for non-agricultural purpose.

Providing photocopies of answer scripts of II PU exams, retotalling and revaluation of II PU and SSLC answer scripts, issue of disability certificates and issue of senior citizen identity cards are among the other services specified in the Act.

The Act provides for payment of compensation at the rate of Rs 20 per day by the designated officer or his subordinate public servant who fails to deliver services in the stipulated time to an applicant.

The department-wise training programmes for officials in implementing the right to services initiative have already commenced.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/227801/15-digit-number-help-track.html)

Bangalore, Feb 20,2012, DHNS:

Dr K Balaveera Reddy, former vice chancellor of the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), has said the digital evaluation system (DES) introduced by the varsity for evaluation of answer scripts is neither tamper proof nor transparent.

Reddy’s remarks come in the backdrop of the recent announcement by controversial vice chancellor of the VTU, Maheshappa, that DES had been introduced for evaluation of answer scripts commencing from the December 2011/January 2012 examinations in seven centres across the State.

He had also announced that the results of three lakh students (after evaluating approximately 18 to 20 lakh answer scripts) would be announced in three days.

In a letter to Governor H?R Bhardwaj, who is the chancellor of State universities, Reddy said that in the absence of any signature of the examiner on a particular answer script, an evaluator cannot be held responsible for erratic evaluation or a few answers not being evaluated due to oversight.

A majority of the meritorious students draw neat sketches using pencil/blue ink pens/colour pens in the answer books. These figures are sometimes not visible clearly after scanning. Hence, digital evaluation may not be proper, the former vice-chancellor said.

Reddy said that under DES, answer books can be sent to the colleges or the homes of the examiners where they can evaluate them. Hence, there will be no confidentiality under the system, he said.

The former VC?said digital evaluation requires cutting the stitched portions of the answer scripts and scanning about 10 to 50 answer scripts at a time.

Cutting the stitched portions of the answer scripts amounts to tampering them. Scanning for digital evaluation requires the answer books to be handled by the technical staff of the varsity. This may damage the answer books, leading to their tampering.

The answer books need bar code labels to be pasted on them before cutting the stitched portions and scanning them, he said.

After cutting, there is scope for replacing the inside pages with those from other answer books. New pages may also be added with the intention of helping some students. Thus, there is scope for misuse of the revaluation facility, he said. Also, the scanned answer scripts could be transmitted on the Internet and are amenable for hacking. So, DES?is neither tamper proof nor transparent.

It has been claimed by the VC that DES?is fast and results can be announced in a record period of three days.

Even if 400 teachers at each of the five evaluation centres evaluate at the rate of 50 answer scripts per day, a total of one lakh answer scripts can be completed in one day.

At this rate, at least 18 days are required to evaluate 18 lakh answer books per semester, Reddy pointed out. He has requested the chancellor to review the DES and initiate suitable action.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/228815/vtu-digital-evaluation-fails-transparency.html)

Naina J A, Mangalore, Feb 20,2012, DHNS:

Dept officials will visit houses and scrutinise furnish details

The Department of Food and Civil Supplies is taking steps to issue ration cards to those who are applying online. Dakshina Kannada district has received 34,000 applications online since November 18, 2011.

The ration cards will be issued on first come first basis. In fact, the officials of Food and Civil Supplies have issued a total of 3.7 lakh ration cards, which includes 1.5 lakh for BPL families. Steps were also being taken to provide facility for correction of details mentioned in the ration cards.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Food and Civil Supplies Deputy Director Sharanabasappa said as many as 24 franchisees have been selected in the district to distribute ration cards for those who have applied online. A training programme will be organised for the franchise staff, before starting the drive to distribute ration cards. The department has already signed agreement with the franchises. The franchises have started purchasing web camera and bio-metric equipment required for the distribution of ration cards.

He said the department officials will visit houses of those individuals who have submitted applications for ration cards online shortly. “As we have not collected any documents online, it would be necessary to verify the declaration made by the individuals while applying online. The officials will collect information on number of family members, verify the address proof. Once the officials verify the documents, the franchise will be asked to click the photographs before issuing the ration cards.”

He said in rural areas individuals need to furnish information through the computers of their jurisdictional gram panchayat offices while applying for ration card. Submission of applications for new ration cards can only be made online. Printed or handwritten applications will not be accepted, he added.

Families in possession of ration cards and who have submitted their electricity RR?number and their residential property tax number as sought by the department need not apply.Persons applying for ration cards have to furnish information about the place of residence and their family. He said submission of applications through the computer system will facilitate proper submission of data, processing and prompt delivery of ration cards. Once the application is submitted, the applicant will get an acknowledgement via e-mail or SMS.

Mobile phone numbers

To delete the illegal BPL cards in rural areas, it has been made mandatory for the card holders to furnish the details of RR number and mobile phone number. SMS will be sent to the BPL card holders as soon as the ration is supplied to the ration shops. “The consumers will be given a form in the ration shops in which they have to write the RR number and mobile phone number. As all the godowns in the district are computerised, as soon as the food grains are supplied to the ration shops, SMS alert will be sent to the consumers to avail the ration.”

“We had not collected the electricity meter RR number so far from the BPL card holders in the rural areas. With the RR number, if a card holder was found paying huge electricity bill, then one can come to a conclusion that he is not eligible for BPL card,” said sources in the department.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/228780/online-applicants-get-ration-cards.html)

Know IT, else no promotion, govt tells its employees (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/227947/know-else-no-promotion-govt.html)

Subhash Chandra N S, Bangalore,Feb 20,2012, DHNS:

http://www.deccanherald.com/page_images/thumb/2012/02/21/228826_thump.jpg

Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) and Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company (Cesc) have launched a “smart meter” that can track daily, hourly and even minute-wise consumption of power.

The smart meter has many features. “Customers will be given an option to buy a battery-operated customer interface unit, a remote-type device showing the meter readings. The meter can also reduce disputes over billing.

One can easily gauge how much each power-guzzling devices like air-conditioners and fridges consume,” explained Kasturirangan, Director, Siscon Hefcom Smart Solutions, the private firm that has offered the technology for a pilot project.

The device will also help Bescom and Cesc manage peak-hour and non-peak power situation. Bescom has installed 80 such meters in two private apartments at Girinagar here. Another 35 have been set up in Mysore by Cesc.

The private firm has supplied the meters for the project free of cost. The two-way communication meter is equipped with a data concentration unit developed by a group of 15 engineers, with futuristic technology. The device transmits energy consumption data every 15 minutes to a central server (currently housed in South Africa) linked to Bescom / Cesc through the General Packet Radio Service.

S A Satish Kumar, General Manager, Smart Grid, Bescom, told Deccan Herald that the smart meter would benefit the consumer and the utility.

This meter can be utilised either as a pre- or post-paid option. But the advantage is that the consumers can plan their energy consumption.

The utility can get all the readings of the meters, negating the need for individual meter reading, he explained.

The consumers are at an advantage as the utility can manage power without resorting to load-shedding.

If the smart meters are connected to smart grids, the utilities can balance the demand and supply through the system by connecting to the nearest available grid, even with the national grid.

If the smart grid is not in place, the utilities can manage power supply without resorting to load-shedding by making directions to the consumers, said Kumar.

The two-way smart meter can also help measure the power generated by households that use renewable sources of energy (wind, solar and hybrid power).

The meter measures the power supplied to the grid, and the utilities will bill the net power consumption.

There is also a gateway option, where the consumers of pre-paid meters can use all the available modes of payment as enjoyed by prepaid mobile phones.

The consumers can pay their bills and even post messages through the device.

The power utilities may also monitor tampering of meters and shifting as they will have access to the geographic information system (GIS) of the consumers.

The meter movement can be easily ascertained and the assets (meters) mapped.

Using Zigbee technology developed by Siscon, the smart meters can communicate with other meters in case of any problem to send data to server within a one-kliometre radius.

The power utilities can also monitor and levy time-of-the-day tariff from the consumers, if the consumption exceeds the limits.

Bescom plans to call for mass deployment of the meters if the device is found effective.

Cesc has already begun evaluating the functioning of the meters.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/228826/meters-tip-you-off-power.html)

Nagesh Prabhu

http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00932/21bgnag_Census_G0F4_932246e.jpg
Tech on the doorstep:An enumerator using a tablet PC to enter data on the Socio-economic and Caste Census that is under way in Bangalore.

The first-ever Socio-economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 to identify below the poverty line (BPL) households that can benefit from Union and State governments' welfare schemes, will be completed in the State by March-end.

As on February 10, census had been completed in 67,035 blocks (53 per cent) of the enumeration blocks in the State out of which 50,739 blocks are located in rural and 16, 296 in urban areas, according to Amita Prasad, Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Department.

The RDPR Department is the nodal department that has taken up the exercise with financial support from the Union Government.

The exercise is being carried out to rank households based on their socio-economic status for each State and to prepare a list of families living below the poverty line as well as to generate authentic caste-wise population information.

Totally, there are 1,26,939 enumeration blocks in the State — 84,800 blocks in rural and 42,139 blocks in urban areas. Each block has 100 to 150 households.

The data is being captured on a tablet PC, an electronic device developed by Bharat Electronics Ltd. Using the device, enumerators upload the data directly on the database server at the National Informatics Centre, Delhi. Data of 47,935 blocks has been uploaded, Ms. Prasad said. The census is being done on tablet PCs to reduce data entry errors and enumerator discretion. The enumerators have, along with data entry operators, been visiting each and every household for the census.

Two phases

Census work has been taken up in two phases. In the first phase, work commenced in 16 districts last November — Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Chitradurga, Chickballapur, Davangere, Kolar, Ramanagaram, Shimoga, Tumkur, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Uttara Kannada.

The districts that are covered under phase two are Mysore, Chamrajanagar, Chikmagalur, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kodagu, Mandya, Udupi, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bellary, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir. The exercise began in December in these districts.

Ms. Prasad said that enumeration has been completed in Haveri district with 100 per cent coverage of households.

The progress in Bangalore was slow with only 24.45 per cent of enumeration, she said and appealed to the people to extend cooperation.

Shortcomings

Shortage of enumerators and lack of support from the BBMP are the major factors that has led to slow enumeration in Bangalore, sources said.

The State has procured 40,000 tablet PCs for the enumeration process. She said data entry operators and supervisors have been appointed and trained by BEL.

# The data will generate authentic caste-wise population information
# Tablet PCs are being used to reduce data

The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2921922.ece)

Cesc eyes ambitious targets

Mysore, Feb 25, 2012, DHNS:

Computerisation of offices in Mysore, Ch’nagar, Mandya, Hassan, Kodagu dists


Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (Cesc) is embarking on several customer-friendly initiatives with a new customer care centre to be opened, apart from a foundation stone being laid for the corporate office on February 28.

The ambitious programme includes part A and part B. In part A it will be partnering with the IT major Infosys, for computerisation of its entire jurisdiction which includes Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Hassan and Kodagu districts at a cost of Rs 32 crore.
Part B shall include mainstream projects that will drive efficiency of the power distribution system.

Addressing a press meet here on Saturday, Cesc managing director P Bore Gowda said, Mandya has been selected as the first town in the entire country for the pilot project where all 17 modules, including metering, billing and collection under the restructuring accelerated power development and reforms programme (RAPDRP) has already been implemented.

The ambitious RAPDRP strives to revive the ailing power-distribution sector through investment assistance to bring about the overall improvement, he said and added initially Cesc proposes to roll out the projects in urban areas, towns and cities where the population exceeds 30,000 in two phases.

“If anyone wants a new power connection, unlike in the past, all one has to do is apply online. Once the application is registered, the system will takeover and it will give all details like the need for transformer, also the optimum location to place a pole and finally it will give details to the stores of the company for all equipment needed,” said Gowda.
The whole idea behind introducing all modern methods is to overcome the delay. The total cost of the project for all the 12 towns, including Mysore, Nanjangud, Madikeri, Kollegal, Hunsur, Chamarajanagar, K R Nagar, Mandya, Malavalli, Hassan, Arsikere and Channarayapatna is estimated to be Rs 59.27 crore, he said.

Plan A would involve asset mapping of the entire distribution network that includes distribution transformers and feeders, low tension lines, poles and other network equipment. All projects implemented under this programme will be verified by an independent agency appointed by the Ministry of Power, he said.

“The normal complaint when there is a power shutdown is that the people manning the complaint desk does not pick up the phone or they let it off the hook. But with online booking and introduction of a free toll-free phone number in all five districts, complaints will automatically get registered. Sms alerts will automatically go to the consumer on his mobile phone and it will be possible to address the problem at the earliest. Once the power is restored even that message will be automatically sent,” said Gowda.

Funding for projects
All projects under RAPDRP follow an innovating funding mechanism. For all approved projects within part A, the Centre will initially fund 100 per cent on terms decided by the Ministry of Finance in the form of a loan. If the projects are completed within three years of sanctioning, the loan amount along with interest will get converted into a grant after verification by an independent agency appointed by the Power ministry, he said.

‘No major shutdowns in summer’
Cesc managing director P Bore Gowda was confident that there will be no major shutdowns even during peak summer this year. Power consumption, which is now 18 million units is likely to go up to 20 to 25 million units and under Mysore Cesc it could reach 21 million units.

Power generation is limited, but on a single day on Friday, the state consumed 175 million units. The demand for power is increasing. However, there are many issues that need to be sorted out, he said.

With the KERC (Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission) monitoring every move, the power exchange tender has to be approved by them. Hence, power purchases are nowadays being planned on a long term basis. Even sugar factories producing power, invoking the emergency clause they have to produce power and give it to the state till May 31, said Gowda.

Five videoconferencing facilities to be set up (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2934226.ece)

The Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) plans to set up five videoconferencing facilities across the State.

A proposal in this regard has been placed before the Government, KIC Commissioner Shekhar D. Sajjanavar has said.

‘Karnataka One'

The multiple service centres of BangaloreOne and Hubli-Dharwad One were functioning well; similar centres would be opened in Belgaum, Gulbarga, Mangalore and Mysore, among other districts.

A ‘Karnataka One' centre had also been mooted, to help people pay bills in any counter across the State, Mr. Shankar said.

State's e-governance system hailed (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2934227.ece)

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2012/02/26/20120226a_002106008.jpg

* Services Bill to be implemented in Puttur

Mangalore, Feb 27, 2012, DHNS:

* Project will be tried out on a pilot basis from March 1

Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Bill 2011, the ambitious project of the State government to provide services to the citizens without any delay, will be implemented in Puttur on a pilot basis from March 1.

Chairing a meeting of the officials, Officer for implementation of Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Bill-2011 Ponnuraj said that the officials were given training in the Bill.

Another round of training will be held in district training centre on Tuesday. The implementation of the Bill will not be affected in those departments, which has already been computerised. The information boards should be put up in all the offices, on the features of the Bill.

Ponnuraj also collected information on the number of applications which the officials receive daily. Under the Bill, the citizens are entitled to seek compensatory cost in case of delay or default in delivery of services beyond the stipulated time.

Every designated officer or his subordinate officer who fails to deliver citizen related services within a stipulated time shall be liable to pay fine. Hence, the officials should be cautious, he said and added that as per the Bill, the services should be discharged within a stipulated time.

Health department, transport, revenue, food and civil supplies, police, education, labour, women and child welfare officials were present. Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr K N Vijayaprakash, Additional DC Dayanand, MCC Commissioner Dr Harish Kumar and others were present.

Training todayAll the department front office staff, computer operators will be given training on February 28 in Mangalore.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/230597/services-bill-implemented-puttur.html)

http://www.deccanheraldepaper.com/pdf/2012/02/28/20120228a_002105001.jpg

Departments told to update websites

Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday said that directions had been issued to all government departments to update their websites by March 15.

Launching www.karnatakavarthe.org of the Information Department here, he said that updating the websites would bring in transparency in the functioning of government departments, besides allowing people to make suggestions in improving governance.

He said that the Department of Information has trashed two of its defunct websites and launched the new one.

Describing the new website as user-friendly, he said that media could make the best use of the website, as photographs and news related to various government programmes would be uploaded instantly.

People could access the various publications of the department, including Janapada and March of Karnataka, besides the tenders floated by various government departments.http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article2943395.ece

Website launched

Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday launched a new website of the Information department -- www.karnatakavarthe.org which provides information on tenders and advertisements, besides various activities of the government.

Speaking after the launch, he said the previous websites of the department had become defunct due to technical snags. The new website is an upgraded version.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/230783/website-launched.html

Right to services named ‘Sakala’

Bangalore, Feb 29, 2012, DHNS:

http://www.deccanherald.com/images/editor_images1/2012/02/29/state-right-to-servie-sakaa.jpg

The State government has named its ambitious programme to provide various services to citizens within stipulated time ‘Sakala’ (right time), which is scheduled to be launched on a pilot basis in five districts in the State, including Bangalore, on Thursday.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Kumar told reporters on Wednesday that Sakala would go with the slogan “Indu nale innila, helida samaya (dina) tappolla.” The logo with the hammer of justice and a clock, depicting that justice will be provided in time, was also unveiled.

The pilot programme is set to be launched at Jayanagar in Bangalore, Bidar, Chitradurga, Dharwad and Mangalore. Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda is scheduled to launch the programme in Jayanagar at 4 pm.

Statewide on April 2

The respective district in-charge Ministers will launch the programme in other parts of the State, Kumar said. The government plans a Statewide launch of Sakala on April 2.

Kumar said people in these places can get almost all listed services of 11 departments within stipulated time. As many as 151 services have been listed by the government under ‘Sakala’. It has fixed time limits for providing each of these services.

A notice board will be put up at all government offices, educating people on various aspects of the programme.

For instance, information on the designated officer and the procedure to file complaints will be made available on the notice board. “We are aware that people are very curious about the programme. Some are even doubtful about its success. The government will closely monitor the pilot programme for one month from Thursday. Loopholes, if any, will be addressed before launching it Statewide,” he added.

Prize winners

The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms had organised a competition to select the name, logo and slogan. Of the 1,506 proposals received for the name, three of them (Vinay Kumar, H Suresh, both from Bangalore, N Harish Kumar from Mysore) had proposed the name Sakala, which has been selected. The cash prize of Rs 30,000 will be distributed among all the three winners.

For the logo, 710 proposals were received and the proposal of Balaswamy, a resident of Mysore, has been selected. He will get a cash prize of Rs 50,000.

For the slogan, 1,095 proposals were received. The?one by Amogha Varsha of Bangalore has been selected. He will receive a prize of Rs 30,000, the minister said.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/231104/right-services-named-sakala.html)

Sakala rolls out in Jayanagar today

TNN Mar 1, 2012, 06.35AM IST

BANGALORE: 'Indu Naale Innilla, Helida Dina Thappolla' (no more red tape and false promises, we will deliver services in time). With this freshly minted slogan, Karnataka will herald a new era in governance from Thursday.

Chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda will launch the BJP government's ambitious programme, Sakala (in time), a new name for the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act, 2011, at the revenue office in Jayanagar 4th Block. The pilot project will simultaneously be launched in Bidar, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada and Dharwad districts.

"It's aimed at providing a time-bound services delivery system for citizens to fight corruption and red tape in prominent government departments,'' law and parliamentary affairs minister S Suresh Kumar told reporters here. Through a public contest, a three-member committee chose the new name and slogan. The logo was designed bases on public feedback and shows a clock showing 10.10am along with a hammer. "The logo signifies that people can exercise their right to quality service in the stipulated time,'' Kumar said

In the competition, 1,112 persons suggested names, logos and slogans. Three persons will share the cash prize of Rs 50,000 for suggesting the name Sakala. Those who won the competition for logo and slogan will share the cash prize of Rs 30,000. "After the formal test, Sakala will be implemented across the state from April 2," the minister said.

The Act will cover 151 services in 11 major government departments. Each service will be given a timeframe for implementation, and if not done, the official will have to pay compensation to the citizen at the rate of Rs 20 for each day delay.

TOI (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-01/bangalore/31112874_1_red-tape-slogan-logo)

Puttur gets ` 90 lakh for ‘Sakal’

Mangalore, March 3 2012, DHNS:

2-day workshop on Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act concludes

Zilla Panchayat CEO Dr K N Vijayaprakash said that the State government has released Rs 90 lakh for implementing Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act-2011 ‘Sakal’ on a pilot basis in Puttur taluk.

Speaking at the valedictory of two-day workshop on Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act-2011 which was jointly organised by the Administrative Training Institute and Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat for the officers from different departments at Netravati Hall at Zilla Panchayat on Saturday, he said Rs 32 lakh will be utilised for training, Rs 15 lakh for advertisement and publicity, Rs 9.70 lakh for UPS and Rs 10 lakh for the computers.

In his presidential address, Deputy Commissioner Dr N S Channappa Gowda said one should give priority for providing dirnking water, death/birth certificate under the Act. If the officials render their duties efficiently, then the services can be provided within a stipulated period.

Mangalore City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said “The Act will give a new direction to the system. It will help in accelerating the administrative machinery.”

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) Ombudsman Sheena Shetty said the system should become clean.

“With the implementation of the Services to Citizens Act, there will be transparency in the entire administrative system. It will make the officials active. The officials should follow the rules.”

The team which won first place in discussion during the training were given prizes. The team leader Chandramouli received the prizes.

Trainees speak

Gram Panchayat Development Officer Thirupathi said “the Act should keep census out of its perview. The implementation of water supply and solving street light problem within three days would be difficult. How will the gram panchayat mobilse resource for water supply and street light maintenance within a short period. If the government sanctions additional funds to the gram panchayats, then services can be provided.”

District-level official K V Chandramouli said that there are few loopholes in the system.
“The rules should have been ratified by holding discussion with the officials,” he said.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/231846/puttur-gets-90-lakh-sakal.html)

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You can now adopt a lion online (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_you-can-now-adopt-a-lion-online_1652496)
Soon, telemetric gauges will give you real-time rain data

One of the problems pedestrians face other than cleanliness of footpath is branches of plants and trees projecting out of compound wall spreading over footpath. What I would like to have is a GPS based system from which anyone can send a SMS to corresponding official complaining about this with a photograph. The operator at the other end can close this request after attending it but can not delete data. If the complaint is send second time (after time required to attend complaint but before a duration for plants or trees to grow again) then system should alert higher ups and so on. Whether such a system is feasible?

This system can even be used for reporting other complaints like cracks in roads. It is known that if cracks are filled in time instead of waiting for potholes to appear then a lot of money & effort will be saved.

Even this system can be integrated with sakaala in stages.

^^Need to see how effective sakala proves with its basic offer

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-- Udayavani

Mangaluru City Survey Relaunched

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-- Udayavani

Wow, e-governance is entering Mangaluru in a big way.

Bangalore, Mar 10,2012, DHNS:

Close on the heels of the entrance examinations conducted by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K), the application process for the undergraduate medical, dental and engineering courses has begun.

The online application process for Comed-K undergraduate courses entrance test (UGET) commenced on Saturday. The test is being conducted for 20,000 seats. As many as 12 private medical colleges, 25 dental, and 150 engineering colleges will take part in the Comed-K counselling. Consortium chief executive A S Srikanth said around 70,000 applications were expected. The test is scheduled for May 6.

The Comed-K officials have requested students to send filled-in application forms to Comed-K office by speed post or courier, on or before April 10, along with a demand draft drawn in favour of ‘COMEDK’ payable in Bangalore.

The DD has to be for Rs 900 for three subjects (either PCM or PCB) for entrance to MBBS and BDS. For the engineering course, DD has to be drawn for Rs 1,100 for four subjects (PCMB).

Candidates have to send their recent identical photographs along with DD, a photocopy of Class 10 marks card, or the school leaving certificate as a proof of the date of birth.

Applications for undergraduate architecture courses will be issued on May 21.

The rank list for the UGET exam is expected to be announced by June 8. Applications can be downloaded from www.comedk.org.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/233523/comed-k-online-application-process.html)

Bangalore, Mar 11,2012, DHNS:

The Food and Civil Supplies Department will in all probability start distributing new ration cards in a week’s time.

According to sources, the department has completed all ground works for distributing new ration cards, both Above Poverty Line (APL) and Below Poverty Line (BPL). The card distribution is likely to be launched by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Shobha Karandlaje by this week end.

The department has begun sending SMS alerts to the applicants, informing them to register their biometric details at the respective local offices. For those who have not given their cellphone number, information is being sent through post and email.

Biometric details

Department has installed fingerprint readers in about 765 places, including select gram panchayats, taluk offices and department’s deputy directors’ offices, for recording biometric details.

As many as 21 lakh people from across the State, including seven lakh from Bangalore, have applied for new ration cards.

The department has been conducting a thorough verification of the authenticity of applications by visiting the applicants’ residential addresses. Submission of Revenue Register (RR) number (issued by the power supply utility) is mandatory to get a new ration card.

The department stopped issuing new ration cards about a year ago in order to bring in a new, foolproof system of issuing ration cards. In the previous system, the government had outsourced the ration card distribution work to a private company.

The outsourced company had recklessly distributed the cards, resulting in considerable increase in number of bogus ration cards, sources said. Hence, the department took up a drive to weed out bogus cards, besides evolving a new system of ration card distribution.

So far, the department has cancelled about 40 lakh bogus ration cards, mostly BPL cards, across the State.

Change of address

The department has also introduced a system wherein sms alert will be sent confirming change of addresses of LPG consumers. Soon after one submits a proof of residence and RR number details to the local LPG distributor, the Food and Civil Supplies Department verifies the details and sends an SMS to the consumer.

Highlights

* Food and Civil Supplies Department to issue new ration cards soon
* Dept has started sending SMS alerts to applicants
* Applicants need to give their biometric details

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/233704/ration-cards-issued-week.html)

Manoj Kumar Guddi,Hubli, Mar 11,2012,DHNS:
Infrastructural bottlenecks have delayed the issue of ‘Pehchan’ cards for workers registered with the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) in the North Karnataka districts.

As many as 1.79 lakh workers come under the purview of sub-regional office of the ESIC, Hubli. According to sources, the delay in training the staff and installation of ‘Project Dhanwantari,’ an online tool, have affected issue of ‘Pehchan’ cards.

A senior official even blamed the State government for its non-cooperation in executing the project.

The ESIC has its dispensaries in Bijapur, Bagalkot, Gadag, Koppal, Hubli, Dharwad, Haveri, Ranebennur, Harihar, Davangere and also at several taluk centres. Hubli-Dharwad alone has five dispensaries and obviously, the cards would be of immense use for the beneficiaries.

Two identical ‘Pehchan’ cards will be issued to the insured and his or her family which enable them to avail of free treatment at any ESI hospital or private hospitals which have entered into an agreement with the ESI, anywhere in the country.

“The issue of cards was launched in early 2011 on a pilot basis in Bangalore Division. The process should have been completed by November 2011. However, 20 per cent of the target still remains to be achieved. The process is yet to begin in North Karnataka,”said Dr Basavaraj Gangal, Medical Superintendent, ESI Hospital, Hubli.

A Srinivasan, Joint Director of ESI Sub-Regional Office, told Deccan Herald that necessary arrangements had been made for implementation of Project Dhanwantari. While admitting that only five per cent of the target had been achieved till now, Srinivasan said a training for hospital staff will soon be conducted in Belgaum.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/233700/pehchan-cards-still-long-way.html)

Bangalore, Mar 12,2012, DHNS:
The High Court has directed the Department of Primary and Secondary Education (DPSE) to post on its website details regarding the expenditure for providing drinking water and toilet facilities to each primary and high school across the State.

Hearing a petition by City-based advocate and party in person A V Amarnathan, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B V Nagarathna directed the DPSE to post the details related to financial expenditure within 15 days after counsel Amarnathan mentioned that there is no reference about the amount spent for construction of these facilities.

During the hearing, Secretary, DPSE Kumar Naik filed an affidavit giving details of the toilets completed.

As on March 3, 2012, the department has provided 46,309 boys toilets to primary schools and only 34 schools are now pending.

As many as 46,346 girls toilets have been completed and only nine are pending, he said.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/233937/post-details-toilets-schools-website.html)

Vijesh Kamath, Bangalore, Mar 13,2012,DHNS
Centres to give info on topics ranging from crop pattern to govt schemes
The Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC) has come out with an institutional model for its ambitious proposal of setting up Samudaya Jnana Kendras (SJKs) at the grassroots level to serve as hubs for disseminating information and knowledge to citizens.

KKC, in one of its recommendations submitted to the State government recently, had proposed the setting up of Samudaya Jnana Kendras (community knowledge centre) in a bid to synergise public information delivery at present provided by government-run institutions like Raitha Samparka Kendras, public libraries, primary health centres, Krishi Vigyan Kendras among others and offer the same at a single point.

In other words, information on diverse topics from advice on sowing pattern to educational opportunities and from details on government schemes to weather forecast - would be made available at the proposed centres.

“The government was keen on announcing the proposal during the previous budget year. But we wanted to place before the government a comprehensive working model before venturing ahead,” KKC member-secretary and executive director M K Sridhar has said.

 IT for Change, an NGO, which was commissioned by KKC to develop an institutional model for the centres, has proposed that the centres should be established at the gram panchayat level. In its 219-page report submitted to KKC recently, IT for Change has suggested that to start with, the existing rural public libraries can be converted to SJKs. It has identified 14 community-level functions that SJKs need to perform.

These include convergence of government information delivery, acting as a Right to Information facilitator, supporting participatory knowledge culture, providing development communication, skill building, besides developing a bank of traditional and local knowledge.

Point of convergence

According to KKC resource persons, there are 6,000 public libraries including gram panchayat libraries, Raitha Samparka Kendras, providing consultation and advice on cropping patterns to farmers, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, providing training and other extension services in agriculture. The SJK system proposes to bring together activities of these agencies and make it available to the end user on a common platform.

People’s university

The report suggests that SJK system has to be considered as a “people’s university” and should be insulated from “day-to-day political and bureaucratic interferences”.

In this direction, it has been recommended that SJK should be run by an autonomous “Jnana Sahayaki”, with representatives from all sections of people. It has also been recommended that the SJKs should be made accountable to gram sabhas with resource support and guidance from a dedicated state agency.

The KKC is proposing to place the institutional model of the SJKs before the government soon. Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department has been identified as the nodal agency to implement the project, Sridhar said.

DHNS (http://www.deccanherald.com/content/234220/knowledge-commission-chalks-blueprint-community.html)

Is this a part of Kalam's PURA project? Whether Raitha Samparka Kendras, public libraries, primary health centres, Krishi Vigyana Kendras in rural areas have electricity connection to operate computers? Whether solar panels or wind mills will be installed for these buildings? During rainy season bio-gas based electricity may be an alternative. How many villages are connected to telecom network? How many not even have mobile connection? Whether information will be made available in local languages?

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Smart SMSes to save the day for Lok Sabha by-poll in Karnataka (http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_smart-smses-to-save-the-day-for-lok-sabha-by-poll-in-karnataka_1663906)

Published: Sunday, Mar 18, 2012, 10:38 IST
By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mangalore | Agency: DNA


For the first time in the history of elections in India, innovative security measures are taken to ensure smooth and safe elections.

The Western Range police have developed an SMS system that will keep the police updated on all activities pertaining to elections, such as rigging, Naxal attacks, EVM malfunction or any other law and order situation.

True to its name, Smart Information Messenger for Public and Law Enforcement Engagement Karnataka (SIMPLEE K), this smart technology will keep the police alert during the Udupi-Chikmagalur by-poll on Sunday.

Outlining the new system, inspector-general of police, Pratap Reddy explained that the software enables the police to receive information from a pre-registered number from other policemen as well as the public.There are 2,200 registered numbers from which one can send SMS to over 5,425 police officers, who are on poll duty. “The pre-registered numbers belong to polling officers and returning officers deployed in 416 sectors for the Udupi Chikmagalur by-poll,” he said.

“The SMSes will also be monitored by the control room staff and alert the police personnel on duty in that particular sector to take action. This is a boon to the officials as they can take corrective measures within minutes,” the IGP said.

The new system can also be applied to other situations. The IGP said that the police top brass will definitely take note of the system and include this as a potent means of communication. “The Western Range was the first to conceptualise and launch it. They will be the first to use it during the by-poll,” he said.

Electoral process gets a technological boost

MANGALORE: Even before the first vote for the� Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha by- election was cast, technological aids were incorporated to ensure organised flow of information.

Under SIMPLEE-K system, a special control room was activated� which in every 10 to 15 seconds will send messages to� over 2,200 pre-registered users comprising sector police officers, supervisors and senior police officials overseeing 1,633 polling booths across eight Assembly units.

“The system supports two-way flow of information with the control room receiving incoming messages on� votes polled and any untoward incidents from the registered users, “ said IGP (Western Range) Pratap Reddy while familiarising mediapersons with SIMPLEE K at his office on Saturday.With SIMPLEE K nearly 5,000 messages were delivered within 10 seconds, Reddy added. The system is not vulnerable to hacking and is also immune to server crashes.

Where the mobile network is not accessible, sector police officials overlooking 30 to 35 polling booths can compile information and send them to control room.�� SIMPLEE K’s applications� prompted Reddy to integrate the technology after elections for the western range on an experimental basis. “The data of 5,424 police personnel in 90 police stations under western rage was created,” he� said. He added with the� SIMPLEE K any particular group or assignment can be created.“With the system we have plans to accept public complaints,” he said.

Smart Information Messenger for public and law enforcement engagement Karnataka (SIMPLEE) was coined by Assistant Superintendent of police Puttur Division M N Anuchet.�

x-post

After completion of the survey work, Karnataka's ambitious ˜Urban Property Ownership Records" (UPOR) project has now advanced to the next stage i.e. the ownership enquiry process, in Mysore.

The government has initiated a project to create property records in urban areas. Under this, ownership property records are created for urban properties following the provisions of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. The property records will be similar to the property records in the form of RTC created in rural areas in the state. Registration has been made compulsory. Property records created accordingly will be considered ownership records as per Section 133 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964 and will therefore have a presumptive value.

Mysore is one of the four cities in the state where UPOR was launched as a pilot with private-public participation (PPP). The project to digitize land records with a view to provide authentic property records on the lines of RTC records created in rural areas is the first of its kind in the country. It has now been extended to other urban centres, including Bangalore.

The project, which is expected to reduce disputes over property ownership, has received approval and funding from the 12th Finance Commission. UPORs are also expected to check property tax evasion. For instance, present records show around 200,000 properties in Mysore city. But now, after the UPOR survey, it has been found to be higher by 75,000, putting the figure at 275,000, revealing that these property owners are not paying tax.

After its launch in Mysore, field survey of the properties has been completed now. Ownership enquiry process has also been completed in respect of some properties and is in progress for the rest.

Draft UPOR records are ready now for 150 properties in ward No. 12 of J P Nagar in respect of which objections have been invited from their owners. Owners as well as others can raise objections if any within 30 days of the receipt of the draft UPOR record at the UPOR office in Nazarbad, the UPOR Project Officer has said. After resolving the objections, final UPOR records will be ready after 30 days. Respective property owners can collect the records from the UPOR office after paying a fee and identity and address proof like voters; ID, driving licence, ration card, passport, pan card or UID, he said.

The Revenue Department has created a website, www.upor.karnataka.gov.in which will be updated time to time. Draft PR cards generated will be available for viewing in the website. Property holders can search the draft PR card either by giving khatha number, house number or address of the property.

Photographs of the property are also attached to the each property. Owners can confirm its correctness, the officer said.

BS (http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/urban-property-ownership-records-projects-gathers-steam/467737/)

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-- Hosadigantha

Get SMS, mail on power outage

Mysore, Mar 19, 2012, DHNS :
Prepaid meters to be introduced on a pilot basis in the region
Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (Cesc) is planning to collect details such as mobile numbers and e-mail IDs from at least five houses connected to a feeder with the intention of alerting them about unscheduled power cuts, said its managing director P Bore Gowda.

He was speaking at the interaction organised by Mysore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) at the Institution of Engineers here on Monday.

Bore Gowda mentioned that using available technology, Cesc would send SMS and e-mails to the residents if it planned to resort to power cuts. Citing the need for such a facility, he said that recently even though there were power cuts for one hour each day, he had been kept in the dark about the issue.

Subsequently based on complaints from people he had taken measures to rectify the issue. Using SMS and e-mails would help people get prior information about the power cuts, he added.

He also mentioned that Rs 100 crore funds allocated under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP), Cesc was emphasising on replacement of old transformers and improving the quality of power.

Also with the intention of reducing transmission and distribution losses, 600 poles have been ordered.

Prepaid meters

Responding to a query, he said a pilot project on prepaid meters would be implemented in the region. There are several sparsely populated areas especially in Kodagu for whom the prepaid metres would be a boon, he added.

He said a meeting of bankers would be called soon, so that based on the RR numbers, bank accounts could be linked. With this mechanism, people wouldn’t need to visit Cesc centres to pay their bills.

At the end of the month, based on the bill generated, the bank would cut the bill amount from the account. Also all domestic meters is being replaced with static meters by Cesc, he added.

Discussing about the power generation, he said Cesc is ready to buy power from rooftop generation in houses at Rs 2.73 per unit. He said it would help in reducing shortage of power.

MCCI president Sudhakar Shetty, KASSIA general secretary Sureshkumar Jain, Chamber of Commerce president Ravindraprabhu, Deveraja Market Association president Mahadevappa and others were present.

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