As the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) progresses towards going paperless, members of standing committee are demanding a separate information technology (IT) department in the civic body.
Currently, work is being handled by the electric department that is headed by additional city engineer GV Rao.
NMMC will be handing out tablets to its corporators and will be developing an application to enable residents to pay property tax and water bills through an Android-based system.
It plans to make available agenda of every civic meeting to its corporators through an agenda management system on their tablets.
However, NCP corporators Shivram Patil and MK Madhvi pointed out at the discrepancies in the present system.
“That the electrical department is handling IT work has ruined the very purpose of going paperless. Even our website has not been updated properly and there are several gaps.
The electrical department is not competent enough to handle things and we need expertise from the IT field to handle such things,” Patil pointed out.
The standing committee cleared the proposal for Rs78.50 lakh for purchase of tablets and development of application for the payment of property tax and water bills.
It is crucial that a separate IT department is put in place as there have been complaints of delays in file clearances owing to glitches in the software used by the municipal corporation.
Madhvi said, “Despite paying their property tax bills online, residents are receiving bills showing arrears. Such technical glitches need to be addressed by experts in the field.”
Municipal commissioner Abasaheb Jarhad, too, agreed with the corporators and said, “We have gathered information on this and there is a proposal to create separate IT department for civic body.”
A necessity
It is crucial that a separate information technology department is put in place as there have been complaints of delays in file clearances owing to glitches in the software used by the municipal corporation.
