Nagpur: From thick files moving between civic offices to development projects being tracked on a screen, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is preparing for a major shift towards paperless governance.The civic body is working on a proposal to provide tablets to all 160 corporators, giving them digital access to development-work files, approvals and project updates from their wards.The proposal, which is currently at a preliminary stage, is expected to cost around Rs70 lakh to the civic body, a senior NMC official said. The move comes soon after the civic body rolled out its Works Management System, a digital platform intended to bring development works, complaints, file movement and project monitoring onto a single system.The proposed tablets will effectively put NMC’s digital file system in the hands of elected representatives. A corporator will be able to check the status of a development work in his or her ward, find out which officer is handling a file and see the documents attached to it.The system is also designed to provide digital trail of a project from its inception to completion. Details of works will be be entered stage by stage, while photographs can be uploaded to record progress wherever required. This means the start date of a work, its progress at different stages and the time taken for completion can be tracked digitally.For NMC, the bigger objective is to reduce dependence on physical files and improve transparency and accountability in processing civic works. Officials said digitisation would also minimise chances of files being misplaced, lost or stolen.The tablet plan, however, could eventually become more expensive. Once corporators are provided devices, officials involved in initiating and processing files at the zonal level could also seek similar access. Junior engineers and other officers who handle files at the starting stage of development works are among those likely to seek such devices.The Works Management System itself involves a much larger expenditure. Hyderabad-based Mars Telecom Systems Pvt Ltd has developed the system and is to be paid Rs12.5 crore, according to NMC officials.The civic body expects the system to reduce stationery consumption and bring greater control over paper-based processes. The move assumes significance against the backdrop of stationery scam unearthed in the NMC in 2022. A committee headed by then ruling party leader Avinash Thakre had been constituted to probe the irregularities.
