SANGHITA DATTA
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY

 The new era of Information and communication technologies
 How ICTs are transforming the State-Citizen relationship and have brought transparency, efficiency and responsiveness in the system
 The Case study of eUparjan- the Computerized Wheat
Procurement System in Madhya Pradesh

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‘E’ in the E-governance stands for ‘electronic’, thus E-governance is the use of technology by the government in providing transparent and effective governance to its citizens.
‘E-governance lies at the heart of two global shifts: the information revolution and
the governance revolution’ (Heeks; 1999 )
 The difference between the private and public sphere
Cordella (2007) observes how the objectives in the public sphere are designed to suit the needs of the citizens while the private sector look forward to maximise the profit in the market domain
Unsworth (2005) explains how it is important to strike a balance between serving the citizens effectively and to have reliable and approachable public administrations

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came up with the idea of ‘Governmental Technologies’ in 2010
 Before them,
(2001),
(2002),
(2004),
(2007) studied the interaction of ICTs and emphasised the role of the government
 To develop technologies which should be able to cater to the needs of the common people, solve their problem and in the long turn satisfy them
 The technology should be cost efficient
 Most importantly to be able to connect the citizens with technologies

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In the late 90s, the World Development Report for the first time documents that
‘ knowledge lies in the heart of economic prosperity: consequently, problems affecting the LDCs are to be sought primarily in the informational asymmetries, which can potentially be solved by implementation of proper ICT infrastructures’
( World Bank 1999:7-18)
The Human Development Report 2001, titled “Making New Technologies
Work for Human Development” asserts the importance of information technologies for the developing world and how the new technologies should bring forward the participation of people in the direct management of their own development

 World Bank (2009) in its report shows that the E-governance initiatives across the developing countries has come to a conclusion that 35% of all such initiatives in the last few years have been total failure and 50% have been partial failures
 Avgerou (2004) argues that there is a need for technological innovations to be associated with the ‘context of action’
 According to the World Bank (2004) ‘the problem of institutional frailty and flawed accountability structures affect the whole fabric of state-citizen relations and pose a challenge in terms of intervention’
 The root causes of the negative experiences were overlooked. , ICTs has to act as a mediator between the government and its people. ( Heeks ; 2006)

 The possibility for improving the state-citizen interaction relies on the accessibility of the government provisions directly without any barriers
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The main barrier is the complex structure of the government.
The interaction between the central government and the citizens is limited due to the constant interference of the state government
As we look forward to improve the state-citizen interaction in the Indian context, we will try to figure out how a better government should act? A better government has to cater to the needs of its citizens in a prompt and timely manner without any hidden costs.

 The Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection has come up with this new innovative initiative called eUparjan for the procurement of wheat.
 This is a first of its own kind of initiative where the government is planning to reach out to the smallest of the farmers in remotest of the villages to be able to sell their produce at a better price to the government.
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This initiative has been successfully implemented in 2011-2012.
‘Uparjan’ literally means to ‘receive’

Before the im plementation of this initiative, the scenario at the ground level procurement system was very different. There were multiple levels of inconsistencies in the food procurement systems which are mentioned below:-
 There were no records of the farmer’s detail.
 No technology was in place to handle such large scale procurement.
 Crucial decisions were made after making repeated calls to various district officials to get the details of the procurement status and reports were manually after receiving the telephonic updates.
 Lack of precise information as to when, where and on which date the farmers have to bring their produce. There was a lot of confusion on which center they have to sell.
 There exist middle men who were helping them to jump the queue.

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The powerful farmers exploited the small farmers by buying their produce at a very low cost so in a way defying the very basic purpose of MSP (minimum support price).
 There exist a manual cheque payment to farmers and in case their names were wrongly spell or in case of delay, it was difficult to re-issue the cheque again. It initiated a lot of malpractice and illegal cheque tampering.
 Irregular forecasting as it was based on subjective assessment and telephone calls.
 Optimum level of functioning of the procurement centers as the state and district officials have to wait for days to get the procurement details.
 Inefficient monitoring and control of the procurement details.
 Enquiring into complains by farmers were difficult to entertain.
 Lack of transparency and corruption as the massive scale of its implementation

 It has been executed in 50 districts through 2852 centers for Rabi and 35 districts through 1081 procurement centers for Kharif
 Software were inducted in 33 co-operative societies
 State e-mission team( SeMT)conducted trainings for smooth implementation of the initiative
 The registration was done through MP online e-district in the first and second phase.

Registration of farmers
ONLINE
MODULE
OFFLINE
MODULE
Data –Field operators
Runners
The transfer of information

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The registered farmers are intimidated about the various procurement activities through SMS mechanism.
SMS are sent 4-5 days prior from the expected date of crop procurement so that the farmers are able to make the necessary arrangements
Scheduling helps in fixing the per day buying capacity of the various Uparjan
Kendras.
The details of the daily purchase at the Kendras are then sent to the concerned banks
The farmers get their payment within 10 working days.
After all the processes are finished at field level and district level, all the data is transferred to the online module with the help of the runners on everyday basis to give all the state and district officials the near real-time reporting which enhances the decision making and planning at the State level.

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Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection: - Additional Chief
Secretary (Food) and the Department administers of Public Distribution System provided the administrative leadership and the inter-departmental and interagency coordination and communication. They were also responsible for the communication with the stakeholders.
National Informatics Center, Bhopal: - They were responsible for designing, operating and maintaining the software. They also provided support in training at the state level.
Madhya Pradesh State Civil Supplies Corporation: - it is the public sector undertaking under the Department of Food and has the ownership of the procured food grains.
Madhya Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing Federation (MARKFED):- it worked as a procurement agency in selected districts

 Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT):-
It monitored the software application in the state.
 District Central Cooperative Banks: - They assisted in direct payments to the farmers through bank transfer.
 Agricultural Cooperative Societies: - They managed more than 2000 procurement centres.
 In addition to these, a Project Management Committee was set up to overview the work and to make sure the timeline is followed.

Technological/ IT:
 Computer Hardware worth 14.94 crores - Atom processor laptops, dot matrix printers, inverters and other peripherals.
 Application Development – Application developed by NIC to track purchase, transportation, storage and payment.
Approximate Cost of Implementation:
 In 2012-13: Wheat(Rabi): Non-recurring: 18 crore, Recurring: 5 crore
 In 2013-14: Kharif (paddy): Non-recurring: 1.64 crore, Recurring: 6.01 crore
 Cost of eUparjan – Less than Re 1 per quintal!!

To make the system more transparent and to reach out to a large number of farmers, a eUparjan was initiated keeping in mind the following objectives:-
 To bring transparency in the procurement of wheat at MSP (minimum support price)
 Connecting all the farmers in the state under one database
 Speedy and unbiased transfer of the MSP dues directly in the bank account of the farmers within a specified time.
 Making the administrative work hassle-free and enhancing the forecasting, monitoring and tracking capabilities of the department.
 In the long run, saving the procured wheat from damaging and storing it more safely.

 Reaching out to mostly illiterate farmers and to make them acquainted with the system.
 This initiative was implemented among those people who are totally unfamiliar with the information technology
 As the geographical terrain was different in various districts and the spread was vast without proper internet facility, Runners played an important role in reaching out at the remotest villages.

 A state wise awareness programme was set up to encourage them to be a part of the initiative. It included advertising through print media, campaigning through radio and television and spreading awareness through mobile services
 In case farmers were not able to provide mobile numbers, the initiative encourage them to provide their neighbours, friends or family member numbers.
 . Procurement centres took the responsibility of the power cuts and extra batteries and inverters were provided by them.
 Constant interaction with district officials were carried out instead of the tiresome telephonic reports earlier. New age technology such as video conferencing were used and it made a huge difference in the approach

The initiative, like other, also faced criticism in the beginning but with the strong conviction and political support from the government it was able to roll out on time
 Services has been particularly improved in the following ways:-
 One unified database which cater to the needs of the farmers and centralized
Management Information System for the farmers in the state
 Hands on information about the availability on stocks of wheat which helps in quick decision making process. The evaluation to maintain sufficient stocks for public distribution system in state becomes more efficient and easy.
 Efficient monitoring and procurement processes. Thus there is no chance of discrepancy in the process.
 Real time alert mechanism for farmers saves a lot of time in the procurement processes.

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Real time alert mechanism for farmers saves a lot of time in the procurement processes.
SMS alert mechanism has helped the farmers in scheduling the procurement process and make the necessary arrangements on time.
This initiative has particularly made significant progress in the storage management system.
Payment to the farmers has become hassle free and convenient.
Transparency in the state and citizen interface and an absolute cut down of the middle man.
System generated reports, orders and receipts has encouraged fair play in the initiative.
Seamless integration of offline and online connectivity.

15.62 Lakh Farmers have registered so far and nearly 13.5 lakh SMS were sent to the farmers. Around 85 lakh metric tons of wheat was procured and about 8,420 crores amount was transferred to Farmers. Through the initiative of eUparjan we try to understand that how technology when used wisely can actually bridge the gap between the citizen farmer and the state and can smoothly and successfully help the government to understand the needs of its citizen closely.
Thus,in an Indian Institutional set up, to maximize the receptiveness of the government, ICTs need to build upon the state-citizen relationship as this is the starting point from where intolerance of the state to public is generated. . ICTs can actually maximize the responsiveness of the government and if used wisely, the use of new technologies can be relevant in the long term.