Personal Thought: MP becomes e-state

Some years ago no one could have even a wild idea that a state like Madhya Pradesh, which carries the tag BIMARU state, could win a single e-governance award, let along four at a time, three of them gold and one silver at the national level. But, yes, it's true. The State has pipped non-BJP governments in garnering e-governance awards this year.
Madhya Pradesh has bagged four out of total 18 awards including three gold and 1 silver medals. The gold medals were won by MP Online for Outstanding Performance in Citizen centric service delivery, Forest Dwellers Survey System, office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, I.T. Wing, Madhya Pradesh for Innovative Uses of Technology in e-Governance and State Education Portal, State Education Department for Specific Sectoral Award: Focus while the silver medal was garnered by i-Geo Approach under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, Madhya Pradesh Rural Development Authority, Bhopal.
These awards were presented by the Rajasthan Governor, Prabha Rao during the two-day 13th National Conference on E-Governance, which was in Jaipur recently.
The national awards for e-governance 2009-2010 in seven categories were conferred on 17 organisations and one organisation was awarded with the special mention award. Among the 18 winners, a maximum of four awards have been bagged by Madhya Pradesh. This is a major achievement of the Madhya Pradesh Government.
In fact, the series of Madhya Pradesh winning e-governance awards started in the year 2008 when "Computerization of Madhya Pradesh Mantralaya" bagged Excellent Project Award under the Best E-Governed Project in CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2008-09, at New Delhi. The Project covers the computerization of the Office of the Chief Minister and Office of the Chief Secretary, besides many other Systems, like Departmental Monitoring System, File Movement Monitoring System, PARAKH (Basic Services & Amenities Management System), CM Monitoring Programme (Performance Management System), Samadhan Online (Public Grievances Monitoring System), Personnel Information Management System, etc. The State has also bagged the Runners-Up Award under the Best E-Governed State.
Earlier in 2007, "CHRIS" was awarded winner, whereas "Samadhan Ek Diwas" &Parakh were runner-up for delivery of G2C & G2G/E (respectively) services, from the Computer Society of India (CSI). It may be worth mentioning that the ICT efforts of NIC for Samadhan Online, CM Monitoring Programme, Video Conferencing Facility, PARAKH, Result Dissemination Services, Hosting Services, Geomatic Services, etc. are also appreciated by the State Authorities on regular basis. NIC Madhya Pradesh has been extending ICT services to both Central and State Government Departments/Organizations since 1988 and fulfilling commitment in multi-dimensional ways to achieve the user satisfaction with the help of latest state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure.
It may be mentioned that the pace of e-regime has accelerated in the state after special interest taken by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, IT Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and Secretary to CM Anurag Jain, who is also information technology expert. With these efforts, it may be hoped that the state will march further on path of e-development.
AA Farhan