e-JalaAbantan – Department of Water Resources, Odisha

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Case Study

Transformation in Water Allocation Process in Odisha

Problems:

The Odisha Irrigation Act and the Odisha Irrigation Rule, as modified, authorise the Government to grant commercial and other entities authorization to use water from Government water sources and irrigation works. P.H./RWSS water supplies, Railways, Ports, Institutes, etc.) can apply for water online using E-JalaAbantan. The process for allocation of water to commercial and other establishments was not streamlined and digitized. The paper-based applications were voluminous and took a huge amount of time and manpower to process and the offline process had no defined timelines leading to delays and uncertainty for the department and the applicants. So, It was difficult to sort out documents and remove redundant data from applications in the offline mode. The payment of challans and other fees was through cash which made the process of settlement of payments really time-consuming and complex and it was difficult to verify treasury challans received by the executive engineers in the offline system.To effectively streamline this system into one online entity required bringing together various government departments and agencies  and create awareness among stakeholders from all aspects of the government required dedicated and concerted efforts 

Solutions:

The e-JalaAbantan portal has transformed the entire system of water allocation by bringing in agility and transparency. Once the application is received from commercial or other entities, it is verified at the level of the Department of Water Resources, If any discrepancies are found queries are raised in a timely manner. The data submitted with the applications can be verified and cross-checked online instantly which was not possible earlier.  Web based system for receiving online applications were developed online Dashboard for monitoring purposes and for real time status.The use of payment gateways to process payments has eliminated the problems of money going into the wrong account heads. With the deployment of the online system, transparency is maintained at every level because all the processing has to be done in a time-bound manner. Whereas, in the offline system, applicants did not respond in time to queries by the department, online system delayed responses lead to rejection of the application. The online availability of all communication and approval letters to all the concerned parties reduced delay in the dissemination of information. Hence, the online interface provided tracking of applications possible for the applicants.

Outcomes

• Timely allocation of water to commercial and other establishments.
• Significant reduction in water allocation system turnaround time.
• Greater transparency, enhancing faith of stakeholders.

Outcomes:

The entire process of application was expedited and completely made online saving time and resources for the department and the applicants. Online form filling process could be done from any part of the state providing the applicants with a convenient way for applications and the total turnaround time was reduced for the allocation of water, Thereby reducing wait times for the applicants. This type of system has interoperability with other existing systems of the department, and  resulted in seamless operations. The increase in transparency because of this system has ensured that all the stakeholders benefit from this digital initiative and therefore, the huge amounts of paper have been saved since the process moved online, This has also resulted in convenient  and safe recordkeeping system deploys role-based authentication so that only the authorized people can have access to information and then the system exhibits enormous potential for replication across different states in the country

Challenges

The main challenge for the system is to bring all stakeholders into a single system. And the acute shortage of manpower because people are not that much aware with the system. Creating awareness among stakeholders from remote locations of Odisha is a big challenge itself. And the verification of genuineness of Treasury challans received by Executive Engineers.

Innovation

The innovation involved in this system is mainly workflow-based system, with facilities of alert, reminders, real time status tracking and e-Payment of Treasury Challan with mapping of various treasury heads. The main one is online Dashboard for monitoring purposes which gives feedback mechanism for grievances redressal

Opportunities

The opportunity involved by creating this type of system is Integration with Industrial Water Consumption and Revenue collection Monitoring System (IWCRCM) and the GIS integration with latitude and longitude of the applicant and mapping with nearest basin, river, dam etc.

For more information, please contact:
Mr Deepak Kumar Mohanty, Chief Engineer, Water Services at cews-eicwr.od@nic.in

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