Meghalaya's digital push expedites project processing

Shillong: The Meghalaya government's digital initiatives has saved 528 person years of processing time in the current year.

The government has made paperless the processing of all scheme proposals and release of funds through the deployment of the e-proposal system and the Budget Estimation Allocation Monitoring System.

For further boost the system, the government has allocatted an amount of Rs 11 crore for 2023-24. In this fiscal, the government plans to take the digital systems to the district level. Coupled with implementation of the e-billing system at the treasuries, the complete process of project sanctioning and fund release will become paperless.

There is also a plan to start a single citizen-facing portal to increase the ease of accessing government services digitally.
Meghalaya's thrust on digitisation comes at a time when the Narendra Modi government is focusing on Digital India and the country is discussing Data for Development with its G20 partners. However, internet connectivity still remains a bone of contention in the state.

Recently, under India's G20 presidency, the second meeting of the Development Working Group was held in Kerala where delegates deliberated on Data For Development.

During the inaugural session on 'Data for Development', Nagaraj Naidu, Joint Secretary and Co-Chair of the Data Working Group at the G-20 Secretariat, emphasised the importance of looking at data from a development perspective and using it for the public good. He also outlined that only reliable and accessible data obtained on time is useful, and special care has to be taken on how to use it effectively.

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