The project, comprising development of software, training the entire staff and connecting 64 nodes in the collectorate with 13 nodes in as many taluka/block towns in this Gujarat district, was put in place at a cost of just Rs 1.22 crore against an original estimate of Rs 1.75 crore.

Having set its own benchmark of evaluating performance of a collectorate where none existed, words about its `success story' spread wide and drew national attention too soon. Government officials from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala have already visited the collectorate to see how the system works.

On November 4, Vadodara Collector Anil Mukim shared the dias with Konkan Railways managing director Rajaram and former-director general of police JF Ribiero at a seminar on `Administrative Reforms' in Mumbai.

On November 18, Mr Mukim was invited to address the 8th Quality Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) held in Bangalore, the theme of the summit being `Global Competitiveness'.

If the number of cases disposed of in a stipulated time is any criterion for judging the performance of a collectorate - where people have to often make several trips just to get a form - it settled 587 out of 1,357 issues during the quarter ended November 17.

According to Mr Mukim, the total number of applications received during the quarter totalled 11,000 seeking permission for 72 different issues, but not all were considered for evaluation since most of them related to land deals, which could take a longer time of up to 90 to 180 days.

"We calculated cases which required to be processed in shorter period, like change of names in ration cards in two days, certificate for backward castes in three days, certified copies of records, seven days and licence for hawkers ,30 days," Mr Mukim said.

The number of cases settled for specific issues included refund of stamp duty - 87 out 126, licence for arms- 26 out of 126, land for non-agricultural purpose (tribals) -11 out of 36 cases and so on.

"In absence of any system in the past," he said, "there in no record of corresponding figures of the previous quarter nor of the previous years. Its real test will, however, be known only after a period of time."

Mr Mukim exuded confidence that Vadodara having already gone down in the annals as the `First Model District of Gujarat' may well become so in the country too, for actually delivering the goods through e-governance.

Talking about the difficulty in raising funds for the project, he said that since the project does not allow any extra burden on the state government, it decided to raise its own funds, beginning with Rs 50 lakh as people's contribution to a Star Nite held on March 21, 1999.

"The next step was to approach a number of private and public sector units located in and around the district. This resulted in a collection of another Rs 132 lakh. It was no coincidence that the maximum contribution of Rs 25 lakh came from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), including Rs 5 lakh for designing and imparting training in computers and general administration to all the 450 employees of the collectorate by the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)."

"Perhaps, NDDB chairman Amrita Patel and former chairman V Kurien, having already replicated the Anand or Amul pattern of dairy, were too quick to judge Vadodara's potential as a Model District," Mr Mukim said.

Meanwhile, he said, a work-load study to ascertain the impact of the project on governance is being documented by IRMA and would be made available soon for replicating by others.

(Tomorrow: Interview with Anil Mukim, Vadodara Collector)