JUDIPOLISOCIO (Opinion): Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011

Waiting for e-services

• Although the Department of Information Technology asserts that IT infrastructure has “largely”
  been put in place under the National eGovernance Plan, outcomes have been poor even for mission mode projects such as issue of passports.
• A lot of work will have to go into re-engineering government processes before the Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 introduced in the Lok Sabha can start delivering results. 

  • The legislation covers the whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir
• The Bill mandates the delivery of public services or other services in the electronic mode, including

  • receipt of forms and applications, 
  • issue or grant of licence, permit, certificate, sanction or approval and 
  • the receipt of monetary payments. 
  • setting-up central and State Electronic Service Delivery Commissions, an oversight mechanism that can potentially streamline the working of the bureaucracy.
• Electronic governance infrastructure can serve as the backbone for delivery of services, but it cannot work a miracle in the absence of administrative reform.

  • The elimination of unnecessary steps, simplification of others, and re-engineering of the process to ensure suitability for e-governance must follow.
  • Equally important, government must use a common data standard for uniformity and interoperability.
• The public outcry against corruption has brought forth some measures to eliminate rent seeking and lack of accountability from a government under pressure. 

  • Now, it must show sufficient political resolve to deliver.