EASYGAS & KISAN Project in Gonda

Dr Roshan Jacob, District Magistrate, Gonda, Uttar Pradesh

EASYGAS
EASYGAS is a G2C & B2C application designed to bring accessibility and answerability into the company-consumer interface. It arises from the need to build a transparent system for an accurate statement of LPG stock position with the various distribution agencies, and its distribution in the district. The consumers can now book their LPG cylinders at the Common Service Centres (CSC), in the villages without the need to travel to the office of the agency. The CSC issues a receipt against each such booking, which entitles the customer to get a home delivery of the cylinder on a particular due date facilitated by the agency.

This due date is defined by the administration in consultation with the Gas Agencies taking into account all government holidays and other requisitions. The monitoring mechanism for the district administration has been strengthened too, with the generation of pendency reports that reflects the status of cylinders delivered within time and after the due date. Various reports such as customer- wise pendency reports, date-wise delivery and default reports, agency wise delivery/ default reports and CSC delivery report allows the monitoring at stakeholder level and gives an insight to the administration to plug leakages.

KISAN
KISAN is a G2C application envisaged as a dynamic interface providing a full spectrum of services to the farmers, right from the sowing of seeds to the sale of crops. The system also provides SMS/Voice SMS based alert service to the subscribed stakeholders. The registration process is mandatory for all farmers seeking benefits from the project. The process is simple, a farmer just needs to visit CSC/Lokvani kiosk and fill up the necessary details to get registered. After successful registration, a unique KISAN code is provided to the farmer by the CSC. The information is recorded in the database on a self-declaration basis. Any farmer wanting to test his farm soil has to approach the nearest CSC with the soil sample. The CSC operator tests the sample with the help of soil testing kit. The values obtained are entered on the portal along with the details of crops for which fertilizer recommendation is sought.

The system based on an analytical tool generates the Soil Health Card for the selected crop area with the fertilizer requirements. Farmers willing to book the fertilizers in advance have to provide a cropping pattern and choice of point-of-purchase to the CSC operator. KISAN software automatically calculates the necessary amount of each type of fertilizer. Thereafter, the agriculture department allots the fertilizer, subject to availability of stocks. The software informs the farmer – by means of Voice SMS/Text SMS – of the allotment of stock so that they can collect the same.

Benefits of EASYGAS and KISAN Impact on CSCs While providing services to the citizens in a user friendly and hassle free manner, the system has also had tremendous impact on making CSC financially viable. To the CSC owner, the income from these two services has given them a much needed boost and now more and more CSCs are coming up in the district. Improved efficiency  By means of this initiative there was a notable increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of gas cylinders in EASYGAS and allotment of agriculture inputs, disposal of applications for agriculture equipment subsidy, agriculture loan etc. in KISAN. Consumer Satisfaction Both the packages offer a single-window solution, located not in a government office but in the friendly neighbourhood CSC, which to the rural consumer is the face of government. The consumer gets detailed information through the IVRS/ SMS/voice call systems in his local language. Number of visits, uncertainty etc. have reduced and the project has helped transform the villages into knowledge hubs that by plugging into global networks bring heightened opportunities/ prosperity to their people.

Other facilities to framers
The farmer can apply for any type of agriculture loan through the CSC. The CSC operator enters all the information in prescribed format. The district coordinator of the concerned bank checks his account at the portal and after a preliminary scrutiny; forwards all the applications to the concerned branch for verification. Thereafter after verification, he will update application status at portal as having been sanctioned or rejected, and in case of rejection, give reason for the same. The application will be marked as default after 30 days as per RBI guidelines. Any Farmer wanting to get agriculture equipment subsidy can apply online through any CSC without repeated visits to the agriculture department or persuasion/gratification of middle level functionaries.

Farmers can track status of their respective application and the district administration/Departments can check the demand & monitor the disbursal system through the portal. Farmers who want to sell their crop at Government Purchase Centre can now book the date and centre of their choice through any CSC using the Crop Procurement Management System. The farmer just needs to provide the quantity, date of sale & name of purchase centre to CSC. The availability for desired centre and time slot is checked online and informed to the farmer using SMS. Once the time is allotted the purchase centre is bound to purchase the booked quantity on the booked date and update the procurement details which is monitored by the district administration.