Maharashtra govt to develop 50 smart villages: CM Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra government will soon transform 50 villages in the state into 'smart villages', Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday.

"Maharashtra will soon develop 50 smart villages across the state. Village Harisal in Melghat region in Amravati district, which has the dubious distinction of being the malnutrition capital, will be the first one to become 'smart village'. It will be done with the assistance of Microsoft company," Fadnavis said.

He was speaking while presenting the national awards for e-Governance for the Year 2015-16 at the valedictory function of 19th 'National e-Governance Conference'.

"Development of 'smart villages' will bring financial prosperity to these places, besides better education and healthcare facilities. There will be enough opportunities for shopping and marketing," he said.

In the era of technology, people's expectations have gone up, the Chief Minister said, adding "there is a need to take fast track decisions to save the escalating cost of projects. The fast track process should avoid any human interference."

"Governance with accountability, transparency and innovation - 'GATI' will lead the country to the path of development by overcoming the country's challenges," Fadanvis said while presenting the awards given for exemplary implementation of e-Governance initiatives.

Emphasising on transparent and efficient mechanism in administration to achieve citizen-centric service delivery, Fadnavis said, "People's participation is essential while designing the governance system." He said that under Maharashtra government's 'Aaple Sarkar' project, about 42 different services have been brought online. "We hope to bring 150 services for the convenience of service delivery to the citizens," the Chief Minister added.

Fadnavis honoured 18 winners in 12 different categories for their outstanding achievement in e-Governance.

Alex Paul Menon, District Collector of Balrampur in Chhattisgarh, the project-head of 'Chhattisgarh online school monitoring system (COSMOS)' won the gold award in the category of excellence in Government process-re-engineering. Silver award was given to the Social Justice Department of Madhya Pradesh for the project 'SAMAGRA Portal', an initiative to implement integrated social security programmes.

For its online tracking system for missing children (Track Child), West Bengal's Department of Women & Child Development won the gold award.

In the category of innovative use of technology in e-governance, Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) under Ministry of Labour and Employment, won gold for implementation of universal account number programme. 

Delhi Police won the silver award for its lost report application. Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre, Nagpur won gold award for innovative use of GIS Technology.

Other award categories include incremental innovation in existing projects, best district level initiatives in citizen centre service delivery through ICT, innovative use of mobile technology in e-governance.
Besides, sectoral awards in the fields like financial inclusion, innovative use of ICT by Central Government, PSU's, State Government were distributed.

The Universal Account Number (UAN) programme of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation under the Ministry of Labour & Employment bagged the gold in innovative use of technology in e-Governance.

IRCTC's next generation e-ticketing system bagged the gold in innovative use of ICT in central PSUs category. Award in the category of use of ICT for development by non-government organisation went to Western Union, Mumbai for its collaboration with India Post for money transfer.

The paddy procurement automation system of Odisha, village profile planning atlas of Gujarat, Delhi traffic police mobile app, online hotel reservation system of Himachal Tourism were also among the winners.