MY LOVELY INDIA

E-PANCHAYAT BACKGROUND

As per the World Bank, "E-Government refers to the use by government 

agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the

 Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations

with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government." Government of 

India (GoI), with an intention to transform the governance landscape by 

ensuring participation of citizens in policy making and providing ease of 

access to information to the citizens, introduced the National e-Governance

 Plan (NeGP) in 2006. The vision of the NeGP was to "Make all

 Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through

 common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency &

 reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of

 the common man." e- Panchayat is one of the Mission Mode Project

 (MMP), currently being implemented with a vision to empower and 

transform rural India.

As a first step towards formulating the project, the Ministry of Panchayati 

Raj constituted an Expert Group in June, 2007 under the Chairmanship of 

Dr. B.K. Gairola, Director General, NIC, Government of India. The Expert

 Group was entrusted with the task of assessing the IT Programmes of 

Ministry of Panchayati Raj and recommending cost effective solutions

 along with the cost implications. Adopting a consultative approach, the

 Committee interacted with the States/UTs to assess the existing status of

 computerization up to the Gram Panchayat level, including the initiatives 

undertaken by the State Governments. In order to understand the ground 

realities, the Committee conducted field visits to some of the Gram 

Panchayats in the selected rural areas where some IT initiatives had been 

undertaken. Inputs from eminent experts in the public and private sector

 were also taken into account as part of the consultative process. In essence, 

it found that while some computerization efforts had already been made at 

Panchayat level by States like Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala,

 Andhra Pradesh and Goa, these attempts were limited as they were driven 

by short term goals and were unable to completely transform Panchayats 

due to lack of a holistic perspective. It was felt that a more comprehensive 

approach was required to make a cognizable impact on the functioning of 

the Panchayats for the benefit of the citizens. These recommendations

 formed the basis for the conceptualization of ePanchayat MMP.

The e-Panchayat project holds great promise for the rural masses as it

 aims 

to transform the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) into symbols of 

modernity, transparency and efficiency. This is a one of its kind

 nationwide

 IT initiative introduced by Ministry of Panchayati Raj that endeavours

to ensure people's participation in programme decision making, 

implementation and delivery. The project aims to automate the 

functioning of the 2.45 lakh Panchayats in the country. The project

addresses all aspects of Panchayats' functioning including Planning,

Monitoring, Implementation, Budgeting, Accounting, Social Audit and

 delivery of citizen services like issue of certificates, licenses etc.

PROJECT CONCEPTUALIZATION

                                

e-Panchayat MMP is aimed at automating internal work flow processes of

 all the 2.45 Lakh Panchayats (approx) across the country. This will cover 

approximately 30 lakh elected members and several lakhs PRI 

functionaries. In 2009-10, in order to lay a strong foundation for e-

Panchayat and to ensure that project evolved through an elaborate 

consultative process, Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) commissioned a

 comprehensive study covering all States and UTs to identify all the

 Information and Services Needs of the stakeholders viz. Central

 Ministries, State Departments, Panchayats and Citizens. Field studies were

 conducted in 135 Panchayats across 45 Districts covering all 34

 States/UTs. 23 Central Schemes were studied and discussions were held

with 11 Central Line Ministries, their State Departments, District and Block

 Administrations and several field level functionaries. Inputs were also

 taken from Gram Sabha meetings and through other focused group

 discussions with citizens.

About more two words of egov./epanchayat

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has undertaken e-Panchayat 

Mission Mode Project(e-Panchayat MMP) with a view to introduce and 

strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the 

country and build associated capacities of the PRIs for effective adoption of 

the e-Governance initiative. Under this project, Panchayat Enterprise Suite

 (PES) has been conceptualised which comprises 11 Core Common 

applications. At present, Panchayat Enterprise Suite has been 

deployed/operational with 10 Core Common Applications and GIS layer 

module is under conceptualisation. The operational modules includes 

LGD(Local Government Directory), Area Profiler(Socio-economic & 

general details), PlanPlus(to strengthen Decentralised & Participatory

 Planning), PriaSoft(Panchayat Accounting), ActionSoft(Works/scehme 

implementation Monitoring System), NAD(National Asset Directory), 

Service Plus(To facilitate Service Delivery), Social Audit, Training and

 National Panchayat Portal(Dynamic Website of Panchayats

Area Profiler is one of the modules of Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES) 

being prepared as a part of ePanchayat Mission Mode Project

 (http://ePanchayat.gov.in). Area Profiler envisages facilitating the Local 

Governments Bodies to manage their socio-economic information, 

demographical information, public infrastructure and amenities, election 

and elected representatives and other officials working in Local 

Governments effectively with proper records to facilitate tracking process 

subsequently.

It will act as a centralized database and the information would be available 

to other e-PRI applications for effective use. The main features of Area 

Profiler application are :-

Facilitates to Local Govt. Bodies to Record and maintain socio-economic, 

Public Infrastructure, Tourist Places and Neighbouring local bodies details.

Facilitate to Maintain Family Register for each Village Panchayat and

 helps 

to track the Demographic Condition based on many important Parameters.

Facilitate to maintain State-wide General Election and By Election Process.

Facilitate to record and maintain the BSLLD Datasets Proposed by MoSPI.

OBJECTIVES OF E-PANCHAYAT MISSION MODE PROJECT

If the Panchayats are to perform efficiently and effectively all the 

mandated tasks, which are increasing day by day, extensive use of 

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is needed.

 Moreover, there is a strong need to build a "digital inclusive 

society" where large sections of rural population are able to benefit

 from new technologies; can access and share information and 

services freely and can participate in the development process more effectively.

The Panchayats being at the interface of rural citizens and 

governance structure are an effective vehicle to induce mass ICT 

culture at the grassroots level. It is with this broad vision that 

MoPR formulated a scheme for ICT enablement of all the

 Panchayats in the country on a Mission Mode approach. The 

e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) is intended to address

 all the aspects of Panchayats' functioning from internal core

 functionssuch as Decentralized Planning, Budgeting, Accounting, 

Implementation and monitoring etc. to service delivery like issue of

 certificates, licenses etc.Hence the key objectives of e-Panchayat

 Mission Mode Project are to use ICT for:Automation of internal

 workflow processes of Panchayats

Improving delivery of services to citizens

Capacity building of Panchayat Representatives and Officials

Social AuditTransparency, Accountability, Efficiency and RTI

 compliance of  Panchayats Improving Governance of local self-

government The Panchayats being the basic unit for planning and 

implementation of a large number of schemes and services, this 

MMP would also go a long way in improving public service 

delivery through PRIs with better outcomes.

APPLICATIONS DEVELOPED UNDER E-PANCHAYAT MMP

Under e-Panchayat a suite of 11 Core Common Applications has been envisaged

 that address nearly the entire spectrum of Panchayats' functioning viz. from

 internal core functions such as Planning, Monitoring, Implementation,

 Budgeting, Accounting, Social Audit etc. to citizen service delivery operations

 like issue of certificates, licenses etc. Together these eleven software Applications 

constitute the Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES). Four of these Software

 Applications - namely PRIASoft, PlanPlus, National Panchayat Portal and Local

 Government Directory have been in use by the States/UTs for over three years

 now. Six more Applications namely Area Profiler, ServicePlus, National Asset

 Directory, ActionSoft, Social Audit & Meeting Management and Trainings

 Management were launched on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day on

 24th April, 2012 and trainings are being imparted on these Applications to

 enable easy adoption and hand holding of the States/UTs. A list of these 11

 Applications is  below:

S. No.	Application	Description
1	PRIASoft https://accountingonline.gov.in/	Captures receipt & expenditure details through voucher entries and automatically generates cash book, registers, etc.
2	PlanPlus http://planningonline.gov.in/	Helps Panchayats, Urban Local Bodies and line departments in preparing Perspective, Annual and Action Plans.
3	National Panchayat Portal (NPP) http://panchayatportals.gov.in/	Dynamic Web site for each Panchayat to share information in public domain.
4	Local Government Directory http://lgdirectory.gov.in/	Captures all details of local governments and assigns unique code. Also maps Panchayats with Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies
5	ActionSoft http://reportingonline.gov.in/	Facilitates monitoring of physical & financial outcomes/outputs under various programmes.
6	National Asset Directory (NAD) http://assetdirectory.gov.in/	Captures details of assets created/maintained; helps avoid duplication of works.
7	Area Profiler http://areaprofiler.gov.in./	Captures geographic, demographic, infrastructural, socio-economic and natural resources profile of a village/panchayat. Universal database for planning of all sectoral programmes and also provides details of Elected Representatives, etc.
8	ServicePlus http://serviceonline.gov.in./	A dynamic metadata-based service delivery portal to help in providing electronic delivery of all services in all States. The functionality of the erstwhile Grievance Redressal Application has also been subsumed into this Application
9	Social Audit and Meeting Management (SAMM) http://socialaudit.gov.in./	Captures details of statutory meetings held at ZP/BP/GP levels and prepares reports for social audit
10	Trainings Management http://trainingonline.gov.in/	Portal to address training needs of stakeholders including citizens, their feedback, training materials etc.
11	Geographic Information System (GIS)	A spatial layer to view all data generated by all Applications on a GIS map

About planplus :

Many attempts were made by the Government of India to introduce decentralized planning for development; however, they did not succeed as a proper enabling framework was not in place, both for planning and integration of developmental activities at the micro level. Recently, the Planning Commission issued a guideline mandating that all plans starting from XIth Plan period onwards should be prepared bottom up, in a decentralized manner. Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) scheme of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj was the first scheme to adopt the Planning Commission guidelines in to -to and all BRGF states have been directed to prepare a district Plan document as against a BRGF Plan. PlanPlus is a software developed by NIC, under guidance and direction from Ministry of Panchayati Raj, in order to demystify and strengthen the decentralized planning process. The software is a web-based software and captures the entire planning workflow starting from identification of needs, the plan approval process till the final approval by the District Planning Committee. The software is highly generic and can be extended to capture the plans prepared by line departments at the state and central level to generate the National Plan. The software :

• Facilitates decentralized planning process in local language
• Captures the planning workflow
• Converges the flow of funds from different sources
• Converges the rural and urban plans to generate an integrated district plan
• Brings about total transparency in the plan approval process
• Provides role based authentication and authorization

Acts as a decision support tool through the use of supporting GIS and graphs

About area profiler

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) has undertaken e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project(e-Panchayat MMP) with a view to introduce and strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the country and build associated capacities of the PRIs for effective adoption of the e-Governance initiative. Under this project, Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES) has been conceptualised which comprises 11 Core Common applications. At present, Panchayat Enterprise Suite has been deployed/operational with 10 Core Common Applications and GIS layer module is under conceptualisation. The operational modules includes LGD(Local Government Directory), Area Profiler(Socio-economic & general details), PlanPlus(to strengthen Decentralised & Participatory Planning), PriaSoft(Panchayat Accounting), ActionSoft(Works/scehme implementation Monitoring System), NAD(National Asset Directory), Service Plus(To facilitate Service Delivery), Social Audit, Training and National Panchayat Portal(Dynamic Website of Panchayats

Area Profiler is one of the modules of Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES) being prepared as a part of ePanchayat Mission Mode Project (http://ePanchayat.gov.in). Area Profiler envisages facilitating the Local Governments Bodies to manage their socio-economic information, demographical information, public infrastructure and amenities, election and elected representatives and other officials working in Local Governments effectively with proper records to facilitate tracking process subsequently.

It will act as a centralized database and the information would be available to other e-PRI applications for effective use. The main features of Area Profiler application are :-

Facilitates to Local Govt. Bodies to Record and maintain socio-economic, Public Infrastructure, Tourist Places and Neighbouring local bodies details.

Facilitate to Maintain Family Register for each Village Panchayat and helps to track the Demographic Condition based on many important Parameters.

Facilitate to maintain State-wide General Election and By Election Process.

Facilitate to record and maintain the BSLLD Datasets Proposed by MoSPI.

about priAsoft

Introduction

Based on the recommendations of the Eleventh Finance Commission, for exercising proper control

and securing better accountability, the formats for the

preparation of budget & accounts and database on finances of PRIs were prescribed by C&AG in

2002. These formats were further simplified in 2007 for easy

adoption at grass root level. The Technical Committee on Budget and Accounting Standards for

PRIs in the meeting held on 4th August 2008 co-chaired by

Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Govt. of India and Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General

(LB), considered the need for developing simple but robust

format of accounts and constituted a Sub-Committee co-chaired by Director General (LB) and

Principal Secretary, Panchayati Raj Department , Govt. of Gujarat,

for the purpose. The sub-committee included the members from Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Govt. of

India, Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance,

Representative from Govt. of West Bengal , Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and representatives

from Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and National

Informatics Centre(NIC). Director(LB) was the member secretary of the Sub-Committee. The

mandate of the Technical committee to the sub-committee inter

alia include to prescribe simple but robust accounting system for PRIs, comprehensible to the

elected representatives and functionaries of PRIs and facilitates

generation of financial reports through Information and Communication Technology.

The Sub-Committee in the meeting held on 5th December 2008, entrusted the preparation of Simplified Accounting System to the Member Secretary of the Sub

Committee and desired that the draft format of accounts be circulated among members of the sub-

committee, for suggestion. The simplified accounting

formats for PRIs have been prepared and circulated among the members of the Sub-Committee by

5th January 2009 and the committee in the meeting held on

15th January 2009 approved the Draft Simplified Format Accounts for PRIs. The Technical

Committee on Budget and Accounting Standards for PRIs in the

meeting held on 29th January 2009 approved the Simplified format of accounts for PRIs.

E-PANCHAYAT PURASKAR

     The level of e-enablement in PRIs varies across States/UTs due to 

variations in the level of infrastructure, manpower and capacity in PRIs across

 the country which pose challenges in the implementation of the project.

Experience over the past few years has shown various instances where the

 States/UTs have come up with innovative ways of overcoming these 

challenges. This clearly indicates that the adoption of the Panchayat Enterprise

 Suite (PES) Applications is primarily determined by the ownership 

demonstrated by the States/UTs and the initiatives undertaken at local level 

to overcome challenges.

                 The Ministry of Panchayati Raj incentivizes States/UTs to 

increasingly adopt the PES Applications to improve the day-to-day functioning

 of the PRIs. The Ministry, through the annual e-Panchayat Puraskars, 

recognizes the best performing States/UTs annually on the occasion of 

National Panchayat Day. The winners of the e-Panchayat Puraskar are 

mentioned below:

e-Panchayat Puraskar for 2011-12 awarded for implementation of Model Accounting System and adoption of PRIASoft:

S.No.	Award Category	State	Amount
1	First Prize	Odisha	Rs. 50 lakhs
2	Second Prize	Maharashtra	Rs. 30 lakhs
	Second Prize	Tripura	Rs. 30 lakhs
3	Third Prize	Assam	Rs. 20 lakhs
	Third Prize	Punjab	Rs. 20 lakhs
	Total Rs. 1.5 Crores

e-Panchayat Puraskar for 2012-13 awarded for adoption of 4 PES Applications:

S. No.	Award Category	State	Amount
1	First Prize	Maharashtra	Rs. 50 lakhs
	First Prize	Tripura	Rs. 50 lakhs
2	Second Prize	Chhattisgarh	Rs. 30 lakhs
3	Third Prize	Uttar Pradesh	Rs. 20 lakhs
	Third Prize	Andhra Pradesh	Rs. 20 lakhs

Total Rs. 1.7 Crores

ThiseInformation collecting From NIC,S and other Gov.Site

STATE/UT-WISE ADOPTION OF PES APPLICATIONS

Name of Application	In Use by States/UTs
PRIASoft1	Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal  Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan,  Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand , Uttar Pradesh and West  Bengal.
PlanPlus2	Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana,  Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya  Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttarakhand,  Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
National Panchayat Portal3	Andhra Pradesh,  Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,   Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,  Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya  Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab,  Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West  Bengal.
Local Government Directory4	All States/UTs except Nagaland, Mizoram and Delhi.
ActionSoft5	Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
National Asset Directory6	Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra,  Manipur, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
AreaProfiler7	Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh,  Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Goa, Gujarat,  Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand,  Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,  Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura,  Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
ServicePlus8	Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra.
Training Management9	Maharashtra.