MCC to go on line, ’MCC e-office’ to be the buzzword soon

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Sep 16, 2016: It is reliably reported that in the next three months, the MCC, Mangaluru City Corporation aims to provide most of its services online and has been making preparations in this regard. The long pending work on paperless office set up has got a push with KEONICS,  Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation  Limited being entrusted with the task for negotiable rates. Initially, the project was estimated to cost Rs 1.84 crore although the expenditure may increase. As technological advancements are fast replacing manual jobs, online is the buzz word in most private companies. Keeping in pace with the time, the state government has been incorporating technology and Mangaluru City Corporation is the recent addition.

Recently, a top official from Keonics held a detailed meeting with MCC officials, where pros and cons were discussed. Prior to that, there was a day-long PowerPoint presentation for top officials of MCC including its Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer.

According to the information from  the computer section in the MCC, the paperless office will be set up in three phases - with e-office in the first stage, artificial intelligence in the second and GIS, geographical information system based service in third and final stage.

With ’e-office’ an integrated system will be put in place by connecting all the departments electronically to offer system specific services. In the second stage, artificial intelligence will be implemented, for automatic calculation of building licence fees, setbacks, trade licence, property tax etc, depending on domestic and commercial areas. The GIS-based system in the final stage will help in taking stock of the properties online; be it to assess building condition, built up area and allied matters.

As the local body is being decentralised - three zonal offices will be set up, with the existing office at Lalbagh being the main office - all the offices will be brought under ’e-office’.

The in-charge of computer section at MCC stated that to keep matters under control at the stage of initializing stages, expertise of private players will be roped in. Staff will be trained on handling the devices, before launching full fledged services.

At present 10 wings form the MCC office, like town planning, engineering, council, revenue, tax and accounts, and record section, among others. Although some of the wings were computerised, they were not integrated, except for water supply billing that was also outsourced.

When commissioned, the public are expected to avail most of the services online right from applying for licences to payment of taxes, besides getting SMS updates on the status of their applications.