ePanchayat
Jharkhand Space Applications Center

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
Jharkhand is a newly developed State of India and carved out from the Bihar State in year 2000. The State is rich in mineral resources as well as natural resources. There was an urgent need for an information system to provide the available information of the State at one platform, which can be used by the administrators for the e-governance and by the citizens for the information and decision making. The Jharkhand Space Application Centre (JSAC), an autonomous centre under the Dept. of Information Technology, Govt of Jharkhand took up the task of digitization of all the available maps and to generate the maps for the fresh themes in collaboration with different State Govt. Departments.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
Panchayat department approached the JSAC for preparation of digital panchayat atlas, which was prepared by the JSAC. Further, JSAC took the initiative to make all the information available at Panchayat level under the geoportal namely ePanchayat. The initiative filled the gap in planning due to lack of scientific information. The availability of geo-spatial information solved the problem of planners for making sound decisions. Further, the information

 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
e-Panchayat is a Web-based system providing digital panchayat maps with demarcation and creation of newly constituted Gram Panchayats, Pachayat Samitis and Zila Parishads (also the new Blocks and Districts) and their wards based on the latest population along with socio-economic data. It is different from other application because here we integrated multiple layers for developing the decision support system. The benefits of this project is being utilized by the elected Panchayat bodies and govt. departments and people concerned. The informations like Schools, Health facilities, Roads, Ground Water Prospects, Surface Waterbodies, Landuse/ Landcover, Soil information, Administrative boundary have been attached for the local plan formulation, execution and public participation. This is also helpful in managing public facilities like agriculture, safe drinking water, toad network, communication, health and schooling facilities at Panchayat level. All the information uploaded in public domain i.e. http://jsac.jharkhand.gov.in . Under Panchayti Raj System this will be helpful to prepare development plan for sustainable development of Panchayats.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
The strategy was implemented by the development of a geoportal which serve all the geospatial data at a single platform with GIS facilities. The desired benefits of post implementation of the application are empowerment, enablement & accountability of Panchayati Raj Institutions to ensure inclusive development with social justice, and efficient developmental work for the panchayats. It will be directly benefitted to the administrators, planners and decision makers to prioritize the panchayats based on the development index. More attention can be given to the backward and least developed panchayats. In allotment of welfare schemes, the prioritized panchayats will given more emphasis to bring them in to main stream of development. The availability of basic amenities like schools, health centre, communications connectivity etc. to each of the panchayat are available in the application. The information on availability of Natural Resources in panchayat in the form of agricultural land, forest resource, water resources etc. will benefit the Panchayati Raj institutions for sustainable development of the backward panchayats. Implementation of the application is assisting the administrators, planners and decision makers in uniform development of the area without any discrepancies in lack of information.

 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
Different State/Central Govt. departments contributed towards the implementation of the project. The geoportal has been hosted in the State Data Center.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
e-Panchayat, a customized information system of panchayats of Jharkhand State, was initiated with the objective to provide panchayat-wise information on infrastructure/resources/administrative etc. to the planners, decision makers and common man. In Jharkhand, 32615 villages constitute 4562 number of panchyats. Mostly panchayats are dominated by tribes which are innocent and less-educated civilians. The available information of Jharkhand in e-Panchayat application was generated/digitized using satellite data, maps available with different Govt. departments and topographic maps. Different resources used were manpower, hardware, software, database, maps and reports. The huge database in GIS format was made available in the geoportal was either generated or procured from the concerned govt. departments. The geodatabase was prepared over a time period of 10 years under different projects.

 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
Different themes made available on webGIS platform are arranged in following categories. a. Administrative boundaries: District boundary, Block Boundary, Panchayat boundary, and village boundary, Headquarters b. Infrastructure layers: School information integrated with District Information System for Education (DISE) data, Govt. Health facilities, Observation wells, Automatic Weather Stations, Roads, Railway. c. Natural Resources: Mineral resources: The minerals data available with Mines and Geology Dept., Govt. of Jharkhand was digitized. Apart from this mineral resources exploration study was carried out jointly by JSAC, Mines and Geology Dept. GoJ and ISRO using hyperspectral satellite data. Forest: Forest cover and density map generated by Forest Survey of India (MOEF), Govt. of India was procured. Soil Resources: Different soil types were mapped using satellite images supported by extensive field work by JSAC. Land capability and Land Irrigability was mapped using the different parameters of soil and landforms. Agriculture: The data on the area of agriculture land was generated by JSAC for rabi crop, kharif crop, zaid crop and more than two crop areas using multi-temporal satellite data. River and Water bodies: Pre monsoon and Post monsoon extent of water bodies was quantified using the respective two season satellite data by JSAC. Mining Lease: Mining lease information available Mines and Geology Department was digitized. Wasteland: Satellite images were used to map the different categories of wasteland in the State. Geology & Geological: The Geology and Geological Structures were interpreted based on Quadrangle Geological maps of GSI and updated with the help of satellite data and limited field checks. Geomorphology : The data were interpreted based on the interpretation of satellite data and limited field checks. Slope: Slope data generated using contour information of Survey of India Topographical sheets. Degraded land : Information on degraded land of Jharkhand were extracted using interpretation of multi-temporal satellite data. Watershed : Watershed information were taken from Watershed Atlas of India, AIS&LUS, Govt. of India. d. Derived layers: All the infrastructure, natural resources and physical land forms layers are used to map the ground water prospect, water resources development action plan and land resources development plan. The areas for the development may be chosen scientifically based on the available layers on the Panchayat Information System.

 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
A team of programmers and scientists is there to update the geodatabase and to monitor the activities.

 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
It was the challenge to digitize and generate the data required for planning the developmental activities for the entire state at Panchayat level. It was required (i) to collect the available data digitize, update and geo-reference (ii) to generate the data which was not available specially on the natural resources and administrative boundaries (iii) to generate the action plan for the development using the geo-spatial tools The solution was designed as the Panchayat Information System (PIS) on a web-GIS based platform to facilitate the users for (i) basic GIS functions of display, zoom in and out, pan for all the available geodatabase (ii) print the maps and desired geodatabase (iii) query on the desired thematic layers (iv) creation of buffers based on location and features (iv) search by latitude/longitude (v) distance measurement (vi) extract information about any point, line, area feature (vii) search by panchayat name (viii) multi layer search etc. Governance practices: The information system is being used for the different Govt. departments for their planning and regular activities. For this documentary proof is not collected so far. Following is the example of the use of webGIS for Education Department. The webGIS schools information is being used by Jharkhand Education Project Council, Govt of Jharkhand for the following two queries. (i) The schools hard to reach: On the fly geo-processing tool was generated to find out the schools which are not easily accessible (ii) Served area/Unserved Area: The tool was generated to find out the panchayats not served in the terms of education facilities.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
i. Helpful in proper Panchayat Election ii. A major tool for e-Governance for fast and efficient system iii. Helpful in managing public facilities like cleanliness, drainage/sewerage, safe drinking water, road network, communication, electricity, health and schooling facilities iv. It will make system easier for plan formulation, execution, evaluation of developmental works (road, foot path/REO Roads, drain, tank, school building, panchayat building, library, etc.)

 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
The initiative in sustainable and transferable. The web based geoportal is hosted in State Data Center and further, there is no separate budget requirement for the project as this project is supported by JSAC using own infrastructure and manpower. The project can be replicated for other departments also as per their specific requirement, which will be simultaneously beneficial for the citizens.

 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
During the course of development of the application and finding out the solution following are the learning. i. The database should be available in digital format. ii. The database should be kept in spatial domain for the ease of visualization and geospatial analysis. iii. Availability of the database should be upto the Panchayat level for the microlevel planning iv. Decision makers should have access to the entire database at one place v. Integrated plan should be developed considering the infrastructure, facilities and natural resources of any area. vi. All the developmental plans of the Govt. should be linked in GIS domain.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Jharkhand Space Applications Center
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Sarvesh Singhal
Title:   Shri  
Telephone/ Fax:   0651-2401719
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   directorjsac@gmail.com  
Address:   Engineers Hostel-1, Second Floor, Dhurwa
Postal Code:   834004
City:   Ranchi
State/Province:   Jharkhand
Country:  

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