The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) dream of working through an e-office will take another five years to realise
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) dream of working through an e-office will take another five years to realise. Two years ago the municipal commissioner had announced that the process of dealing with all types of files and issues will be done through an e-office by 2013.
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Officials say they will try to scan all their papers in the next five years. File pic
But now the civic body has said it will take another five years to scan all papers. The BMC has been able to scan only 2 crore papers out of 92 crore papers so far. Two years back after a fire in Mantralaya destroyed many important files and papers, the civic body decided to start scanning all its files. The target was to achieve a 100 per cent electronic office in 2013.
Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte had announced that all its 68 departments would go paperless. But the slow process of scanning papers has led to a delay in starting the full-fledged e-office. Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jalota said, “Out of 92 crore papers the scanning of 2 crore papers is done.
We will try to finish scanning of all papers in next five years.” In spite of the BMC’s claim, the five-year deadline seems difficult to achieve if scanning of 2 crore papers was done in two years. An official from the IT department said, “We hope to finish the scanning in the next five years.
To achieve this we may increase the staff of the scanning department. There is a separate cell which has around 100 people for scanning papers in the Worli office.” Next month the corporation will decide on the appointment of new people for scanning.
The digitization
The digitization will be cost effective, environment friendly and time-saving. The BMC has already digitized the papers of the Property Tax and Octroi departments. The process will be completed in phases and the Pune-based institute, Science and Technology Park, has been roped in for the creation of a digital database of these records. The concerned department officer will be able to see the files online and won’t have to rush every time to the head office.
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