Mumbai civic body directs its employees to process files electronically
Three years after the BMC introduced e-office, an application to process files electronically; there has been a low response to this administrative reform.
As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) aims to adapt digital technologies to process files electronically, its employees are yet to move on to a paperless office. The top brass of the BMC has now directed all its employees to strictly process files electronically, in order to reduce the paper stockpiles.
Three years after the BMC introduced e-office, an application to process files electronically; there has been a low response to this administrative reform.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Vijay Singhal, has now directed all head of departments and assistant municipal commissioners to make stringent use of the application in their offices for all internal paper and file movement.
Activity of each and every file remarked and moved by civic officials through various departments will be easily tracked. Once implemented successfully, the system is expected to increase productivity and bring transparency in functioning.
Santosh Pandey, an activist from Parel, said, “The Corporation handles huge amount of data and it is necessary for them to have an electronic copy of all the details. We expect that this move will also put more pressure on officials, who take months for clearing files.”
Nearly 10,000 users have been created on the e-office system and 1400 users have been successfully provided with training. However, according to the circular issued by Singhal, merely 440 officials have considerably used the application, which means those who have created or closed files or receipts. The total number of users who have logged in to e-office atleast once are 1068.
A senior civic official said, “It is not easy for government officials to suddenly switch and adapt the digital technology, as they have been doing the same manual work for years. However, there are some officials on the ward levels using the application daily. This is an important reform in a civic body which caters to nearly 12 million citizens with so many details and paperwork.”
The BMC had decided to have a paperless office after a huge fire in Mantralaya, in 2012, burned several important files.