Hyderabad, March 22: Keeping in line with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu compter bug, the planning department of the Andhra government has pioneered a Mandal Electronic Atlas which will be used to streamline delivery mechanisms and government intervention in development programmes.The Electronic Atlas, covering all the 29,000 villages in 1110 mandals in the 20 districts which have been covered so far, is to be made available to all the government departments and corporations in whatever manner associated with village and habitation level programmes.
Using state-of-the-art remote sensing technology the Electronic Atlas incorporates all necessary data from census data to age-wise school drop-out figures and even the number of handpumps and taps in each village.
So much so, the Atlas at a later date is also likely to incorporate an agricultural information system and the seasonal mapping patterns for the regions which the agricultural department of the Union government has requested for the entirecountry from the AP government coming to know of the revolutionary system developed by the department.
However, going a step further the chief minister, according to senior officials associated with the project developed by the AP Remote Sensing Applications Centre (APSRAC), which falls under the Planning department, has directed that the Electronic Atlas be dovetailed with the multi-purpose household survey which is being conducted at present.
Though this would take some more time and additional effort to be completed, officials feel the package would provide invaluable information to the users. It would give not just information on the demographics but also the consumption pattern in the households included in the package which would of immence use not only to governemnt agencies but also for the corporate sector to tap the rural markets, they feel.
The data on the electronic atlas would be updated every fortnight through the state wide area network being planned by the state government to beoperational within the next six months.
While the chief minister already has on his executive information system (EIS), village wise details on aspects such as government spending on various projects, schools etc., the electronic atlas would go several steps further in providing inforamtion to every possible section of the society.
So much so the governemnt could even think of franchising the system in due course once it is perfected and its efficacy proven, souces felt. The first test for the system would be the forthcoming round of the chief minister's pet progrmme the Janmabhoomi which will focus on institutional and process strengthening.
Various multilateral bodies such as the United National Development Progrmme (UNDP), the Department for International Development formerly the ODA, and the World Bank have shown interest in funding the Janmabhoomi programme, the officials said.
While the UNDP has shown interest in funding the institutional strengthening component, the World Bank has expressed itswillingness to fund the delivery building systems under the programme.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
