Bihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited is shifting from e-governance to m-governance step by step, says Managing Director, Ganga Kumar in conversation with Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN)
Give us on overview of the Bihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited (BSBCCL).
The mandate of the Bihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited (BSBCCL) is to administer the government buildings and to make new government buildings. Mostly, we look after constructions, repair, maintenance, beautification and any kind of new technological advancements that can be employed for government buildings. We also do it for the private sector. But our primary mandate is to look after the government buildings. Apart from construction, renovation, upgradation and maintenance of residential and non-residential government buildings, planning and design of building network to provide optimised connectivity to residential and non-residential government buildings of various departments are also some of the important activities of BSBCCL.
What kind of ICT programmes are being undertaken in BSBCCL?
In ICT, there are various components, like e-governance, e-health, etc. But we are mainly focussing on components of e-governance. Latest architectural advancements like AutoCAD and several other technological advancements for better delivery of services are being used by us. Project Management Information System, with the help of mobile and tablet based applications, government finance and accounting system, e-procurement, etc are the focal areas for us when we talk about ICT initiatives in the Corporation.
“ICT brings in transparency and accountability. For example, in e-procurement system, everything remains same…the only change is that the process has to go through e-mode”
It is often said that the use of ICT brings in transparency and accountability in the system. What is your take on that?
Without any doubt I can say that ICT brings in transparency and accountability. Let’s take the example of e-procurement. Procurement system remains the same…the only change that comes in is that the entire process has to go through e-mode. It has brought transparency and accountability in the entire procurement system. Same is with project management information system. These simply ensure that activities are on time and projects are moving as per the guidelines.
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But experience shows that the moment steps are initiated to bring in accountability and transparency in the system, there is resistance from the system. What do you think are the challenges ICT implementation?
When we talk about ICT, we actually talk of information being sent by one person to another, and that is done through a medium. Problem is that this process actually causes problems to the various sections, who are ineligible or inefficient. If we take the instance of building construction segment, I can tell you that there also must be some people, who do not want transparency. But, at the end of the day, the government is all powerful and if it decides to do something, it gets it done. No one can stop it. We can see it happening even in the state of Bihar.
What is your vision for eGovernance in India?
I think humanity and ICT should move together. We should behave like leaders and try to create milestones. On the other hand, I think transition from e-governance to m-governance has to happen and that should be the ultimate vision. In Bihar, we look forward to step-by- step growth — first e-governance, then shift to m-governance.
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