NEW DELHI, MARCH 13. Now Delhiites would no longer be required to make constant rounds of government offices and run from pillar to post to seek the status of various applications, licences or No Objection Certif­icates (NOCs). Thanks to the digital revolution sweeping the corridors of power in the Delhi Government, all this can now be accessed through internet, tele­phone or just simply by sending an SMS through your cellphone. 

     Known as the Automatic Ap­plication Announcement Sys­tem, this is something similar to what is used by the Railways and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to dissem­inate information about various sectors. Inaugurated by the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, here today, the system in its ini­tial stages would be implement­ed in the nine districts covering the Deputy Commissioners of­fices. It can be accessed through the internet on the Delhi Gov­ernment portal, through tele­phone by calling 23392339 where the computer will indi­cate the status using interactive voice responses system and through cellphone by sending the ten digit acknowledgement number to 986823102. The sys­tem would immediately send back the status through an SMS.

Further giving impetus to the spread of Information Technol­ogy to the grassroots, Ms.Dikshit also inaugurated a com­plete web portal of the Delhi Government. The portal has been linked to all other depart­mental websites which would provide information at the click of the mouse. An exhibition of successful e-governance pro­jects was also put up by the 23 Departments on the. occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Dikshit said it was one of the golden goals of the Govern­ment to make Delhi a cyber city in the true sense of the word which entailed not only having cyber parks and kiosks but by making citizens use IT and avail of its benefits. In the process, Government had aimed at es­tablishing a transparent, re­sponsive and corruption free regime. Expressing satisfaction at the pace at which IT was be­ing taken up in various Govern­ment Departments, Ms. Dikshit hoped that the goal of e-govern­ance and computerisation would be achieved by the end of this year.

Ms. Dikshit also gave a call for bridging the digital divide and exhorted officers to work for im­plementing a system where even the most marginalised sec­tions could avail the benefits of IT. Stressing the need to com­puterise all governments schools, the Chief Minister em­phasised that projects should aim at benefiting children and women. She suggested that a system of rewarding and ac­knowledging officers and de­partments for their efficiency in implementing IT should be evolved. Giving out details of how the Delhi Government had gone about slowly and steadily unleashing a IT revolution in various fields, the Chief Minis­ter said Delhi had started issu­ing computerised plastic driving licenses way back in 1999 much before the former United States of America presi­dent, Bill Clinton, was issued such a license in Hyderabad.

Further she said Delhi's Sales Tax Department was the first one in the country to be fully computerised connecting offic­es right from the ward to the Commissioner level. The MCD was perhaps the first civic body to implement its website project and the Delhi Government's Tender Information System was the first and only such web based system where tender no­tice details are uploaded direct­ly by more than 250 tender issuing authorities. The Princi­pal Secretary (IT), S. Regunath­an, informed that a schedule had been put in place for all De­partments to go online by De­cember 2003 and warned that any delinquency on this front would be viewed seriously.