A town goes virtual, and reaps in real time

In the home port of Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet, a facility of a different kind has been making waves. Saukaryam the Facility has had the city on the move, perfecting home delivery of civic services and showing the door to agonising queues and hungry middlemen. And this gateway has taken just two years to transform lives.
When Sanjay Jaju took over as Visakhapatnam’s Municipal Commissioner in October 2000, there were the usual complaints: long queues, endless waits for birth certificates, building plans or for simply lodging complaints. The civic service delivery system was dismal, no different from the apparatus elsewhere in the country.
The 34-year-old IAS official did what he knew best. An M.Tech from Bhopal’s Barkatullah University, Jaju turned to technology and came up with Saukaryam, which was dedicated to the city in January 2001.
Today it’s the pride of the city, a model for governance since it guarantees instant delivery of civic services. It has even caught the international eye, winning the UNDP award and a nomination for the Stockholm Challenge.
People can settle their bills online, check the status of building and water supply plans, receive direct information on births and deaths, track garbage clearance, even scan tender notices — in short, all basic services that seemed so elusive because of the time, money and energy involved.
Saukaryam delivers online, a public-private venture created through broadband leased circuits. Banks where payments to the corporation can be made have also been linked to the metro area network.
‘‘This only goes to show how a computer can be used to help the common man,’’ says retired professor V Brahmaji Rao. But Jaju knows this is just the beginning. He has moved to West Godavari as its collector and has donated the $20,000 cash component of the UNDP award to the Saukaryam Foundation, created to take the project to other areas.
In West Godavari, he is busy with e-Seva, Saukaryam’s cousin. ‘‘I had planned the project for some time. One of the first things I did after taking charge in Visakhapatnam was to turn my dream into a reality,’’ Jaju told The Indian Express over telephone. For the record, www.saukaryam.org registers two lakh hits a year