Months after Kochi Corporation’s e-governance services came to a standstill, the local body has started the assessment of works done by Tata Consultancy Services, the service provider of the project. Though around 14 online services were planned, only a few like issuing birth, death and marriage certificates online, issuing certificates of building permits and trade services online, had started so far.
A meeting was held on Wednesday with officials of Kochi Corporation, TCS and Information Kerala Mission (IMK) to start the quantification works of the e-governance services that was provided by TCS. “The Corporation will use the expertise of Information Kerala Mission to quantify the works done by the TCS so far,” KP Vinayan, secretary of Kochi Corporation told TNM.
Despite being the largest municipal corporation in the state, Kochi Corporation has not been able to start an efficient e-governance system for the city. The e-governance service which was started in February 2018 after a long delay has not become fully functional. And the only few services which were provided have also been stalled since the last few months. Kochi Corporation had earlier blamed TCS for the state of affairs.
The Corporation decided to quantify the works done so far by the service provider since the local body had not monitored the services of TCS to date. “The Corporation does not have an IT specialist to assess the works which were being done by TCS. We will complete the quantification soon and will build a new schedule by updating the older one,” said KP Vinayan.
The e-governance project was initiated in 2011 at a total cost of about Rs 9 crore. But with much delay, it was only become functional by 2018. While some services began, they became non-functional later.
Meanwhile, the local body officials have also sought permission from the government to restart the manual services until the online service becomes functional. “We sought this permission from government as our councillors have been raising the issue severely in the council. We will try to put back the online services as soon as possible,” said the corporation secretary.
The whole project came to a standstill as the Corporation decided not to pay TCS anymore without completing the whole work. Out of the Rs 9 crore, the local body has paid Rs 4 crore to TCS and decided not to pay until further developments.