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The UP government is on a mission to remove gaps in decentralised planning, promoting sustainable and equitable development at the village, block and district panchayat levels. To power this initiative Integrated SPIDER and e-MANCHITRA Geo Portals have been developed to provide up-to-date and real-time data to planners, administrators and public representatives, marking a move from e-governance to g-governance.

Removingregional

disparities

COVER STORY

regional disparitiesThe UP government is on a mission to remove gaps in decentralised planning,

promoting sustainable and equitable development at the village, block and district panchayat levels. To power this initiative Integrated SPIDER and e-MANCHITRA

Geo Portals have been developed to provide up-to-date and real-time data to planners, administrators and public representatives, marking a move from

e-governance to g-governance

removing

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is annually published and maintained in the form of block, district and divisional Sankhyikiya Patrikas (SPs) in more than 100 tables/sub-tables, since 1973, 1977 and 1981 respectively. The manual system inherits the issues of inconsistency, redundancy, inaccuracy, time lag in the data and variations in tables, formats, years etc. In the year 1993, SP was analyzed and was found that the total data available in the state was approximately 9.30 lakhs, out of which 3.20 lakhs obtained by calculation, 1.35 lakhs needed entry/checking (related to censuses) only once, while 4.75 lakhs to be entered every year. More than 1,000 maps/charts were also prepared and published in SPs every year. Based on SP data, State Planning Atlases got prepared manually through outsourced agencies as and when required and for the same, Planning Department was paying heavily. The latest manual atlas available with the department is for the year 2000. To overcome the maladies affecting the manual system and to reduce the workload and to increase the efficiency, transparency and visualisation of the data, Integrated SPIDER (Sankhyikiya Patrika : Internet based Data Entry and Retrieval) (http://updes.up.nic.in/spatrika) and e-MANCHITRA (Map based Analytical Charting and Reporting Application) (http://emanchitra.up.nic.in/emanchitra) geo portals have been developed over the period.

Integrated SPIDER and e-MANCHITRA Geo Portals

SP databases are available for all the districts, blocks and villages for the years 1995-2012 by applying the modules: (i) Data entry/updation (Village, block, town & district) (ii) Report generation (GP with villages, Block with GPs, District with blocks, Division with districts) (iii) Query system (Village,

Realising the potential importance of the geospatial technology, Planning Department, GoUP and NIC, Uttar Pradesh jointly conceptualized a `5 crore, GIS project during the year 2008-09 for creating GIS infrastructures.

The journey of the concept of good governance in modern times has gone through

many phases. In the pre-independence period Gandhiji’s vision of good governance essentially meant democratic decentralisation which entailed power to the Gram Panchayats (GPs) and people at the lowest level of political hierarchy. By the early 1990s, however, the idea of good governance had turned into a metaphor of doner-conditionality for the debt-ridden countries of Asia and Africa. It was often blamed for social unrest and political upheaval in many parts of the world. But freed from the element of coercion and external force, the concept retained a certain attraction spurring a number of policy initiatives based on the demand for participatory development, transparency in decision making and empowerment of people to decide and shape their destiny. After independence, both the central and state governments of India, are trying to remove inter/intra regional disparities at macro/micro levels but it still persists in the society. Decentralized, integrated district and local level plannings are being implemented to promote the balanced development, especially in the rural areas. The 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution have bestowed greater responsibilities and powers to the local bodies, positioning them as the third tier of governance.

The Planning Department of Uttar Pradesh Government (GoUP) is collecting data on more than 4,000 parameters from various socio-economic sectors like Agriculture and Allied Activities, Industry, Social Sector, Power, Transport and Communication, Banking, Urban Facilities, Rural Infrastructural Facilities etc. at village, block and district levels. This information

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Block, District, State) and (iv) Map based query system (Block, District) of SPIDER portal, developed using ASP at the front-end and SQL Server at the back-end while work is in progress for the year 2013. Two more modules: GP-SP and Block-SP have been added in SPIDER portal for strengthening the GP and Block databases and tested on year 2009 real data of Mau district. In the year 2003, on the request of Planning Department, GoUP and with the approval of DG, NIC, a Bilingual State Planning Atlas (SPA) using GIS tools and SP databases, was prepared by NIC, Uttar Pradesh for the first time and since then SPAs are annually published using GIS tools in the book forms as well as on the Web. Lucknow

District Planning Atlas (DPA) was prepared using Arc View GIS tools and SP databases in the year 2006 for the first time in book form as well as on the Web on a pilot basis. DPAs in all the districts of Uttar Pradesh are also being prepared for the year 2009 onwards.

Realising the potential importance of the geospatial technology, Planning Department, GoUP and NIC, Uttar Pradesh jointly conceptualized a `5 crore GIS project during the year 2008-09 for creating GIS infrastructures and generating a large number of online thematic maps and charts for understanding the gaps in the decentralized planning and measuring sustainable

COVER STORY

development at the village, block and district panchayat levels in the state. GIS cells have been set up in all the districts and at the Headquarter of Planning Department during the year 2009-10 and are networked for exchanging geospatial information. e-MANCHITRA has been developed using Arc GIS Web ADF for Microsoft .NET for generating annually more than 10,000 thematic maps and charts on equal as well as on unequal intervals: (i) State with regions (ii) State with divisions (iii) State with districts (iv) Region with districts (v) Division with districts (vi) District with blocks and & (vii) Block with GPs. Indicators displayed with dynamic thematic maps are automatically generated through SPIDER portal and reaches via link server in Geo-database of Arc GIS server where GPs, blocks, districts, divisional, regional and state boundaries are already available. Integration of SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA Portals have made possible to reflect the changes occurred in SPIDER data simultaneously on thematic maps generated through e-MANCHITRA Geo Portal. The integrated architecture of SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA Portals has been depicted in Figure 1.

For all levels, thematic maps are available for the years 2009, 10, 11 and 12 except block with GPs. Block with GPs thematic maps of Mau district are available for the year 2009 only.

Key findings of Mau district

Mau district is situated on the fertile plains of the Ganges–Ghaghara doab. It lies between 83° 17’ to 84° 52’ East & 24° 47’ to 26°17’ North. At its north, Ghaghara river is on the border, Ghazipur district is on the south, Ballia district is on the east and Azamgarh district is on the west side. This district represents geographical characteristics of mid Gangetic plain. “Khachari” and “Khadar” are types of soil in

COMPOSITE INDEX OF DEVELOPMENT (BASED ON 22 IMPORTANTINDICA)

MAU : 100.00

GHOSL107.13

BADRAON96.63

MUTIAMADABAD GOHNA92.36

RANIPUR94.48

PARDAHA100.7

RATANPURA98.06

KOPAGANJ91.52

DOHRI GHAT97.85

FATSHPUR MADAON99.85

Help:Used For Enlangement of themap

Used For reducing size of themap

Used For image movement inall directionsUsed to get map orginal sizeand position.

Used to get back extent.

Used to get forward extant .

District Planning Atlas 2012 : MAU

GIS cells have been set up in all the districts and at the Headquarter of Planning Department during the year 2009-10 and are networked for exchanging geospatial information.

Figure 1: Integrated architectural view of SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA Geo Portals

Figure 2: Blocks classification of Mau district according to development composite index

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the areas of north of Azamgarh-Ballia Road and the river flow is absent in the southern part of the district, due to which that area has Bangar type of soil, which is less fertile. The river system of the district is dominated by the Tons River and its tributary Choti Sarju. There are 6 towns, 9 blocks (as depicted in Figure 2), 596 GPs and 1,622 villages (1,499 inhabited+123 uninhabited) in the district. The geospatial case study of the district reveals the following:

• There are 16 GPs spread in five blocks of Mau district where village boundaries of the same GP are non-adjacent.

• Chak Sahja GP consisting Chak Sahja and Chakaudhi villages of Muhammadabad Gohna block of Mau district is surrounded from three sides (east, west and north) by Jahanaganj block of Azamgarh district and the southern side touches Ranipur block of the Mau district but it does not touches anywhere to Muhammadabad Gohna block boundary. Hence, it creates problem for people belonging to this

GP for availing day-to-day government facilities.

• Murarpur GP consisting villages Jaitpur, Murarpur, Babhanauli, Tendwa and Kasimpur of Ghosi block is surrounded from three sides (east, south & west) by Fatehpur Madaun block and north by Dohri Ghat block of Mau district but it does not touches anywhere to Ghosi block boundary (as depicted in figure 3). Hence, it creates problem for people belonging to this GP for availing day to day government facilities.

• Chakki Musadohi GP consisting Chakki Musadohi and Musadosi villages of Fatehpur Madaun block is surrounded from all the sides by Ghaghra river and both villages are also separated by Ghaghra rivulets, though they are inhabited and are prone to flood.

• Belauli Sonbarasa GP consisting Belauli Sonbarasa and Duhia Diliya villages of Fatehpur Madaun block is situated on the bank of Ghaghra river and Duhia Diliya village is divided in

three parts by the rivulets of Ghaghra river though these villages are inhabited and are prone to flood.

• These findings are ground tested, however, some more findings are possible after in-depth geospatial analysis.

Milestones

• Successful Computerisation of Population Census-1991 enthused to initiate these projects and use of census codes has resolved the interoperability problems through these portals. Currently the use of census 2011 codes has been made mandatory by Central Government in all NeGP projects.

• Coming together of State Planning Department and NIC, GoI for jointly initiating SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA projects.

• Software was developed by NIC-State Unit and successfully implemented on NIC District systems while data entry/updation/validation and report generations were done by planning personnel.

• Realizing the success of the project, Planning Commission, GoI provided necessary hardware/software in 1998-99 to all State Planning Offices in consultation with NIC for further expediting this project as a special case.

• Software were converted from time to time to cope up with technological changes – Foxbase+,Xenix; Visual FoxPro,Windows; ASP,SQLSe rver; and Geospatial Technology.

• Creation of ICT & Geospatial Technology Infrastructure in planning setup of the state.

e-MANCHITRA has been developed using Arc GIS Web ADF for Microsoft .NET for generating annually more than 10,000 thematic maps and charts on equal as well as on unequal intervals.

Figure 3: GPs Classification Ghosi block of Mau district according to development composite index

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• Development of human resources in ICT & Geospatial Technology in planning setup.

• Mainstreaming the planning process by applying ICT & Geospatial Technology.

Challenges faced

• Official data captured from census (Population, Agriculture, Live-stock, Educational, Economic Census etc.), surveys and provided by government departments were in different formats.

• Variations in parameters, formats, years, tables and levels.

• Rectification of inconsistent, redundant, duplicate, erroneous spatial and non-spatial data received from different sources and their integration was a challenge.

• Creation of GIS infrastructure, procurement of hardware/software, spatial data and geospatial technology know-how was a challenge.

• Geography/Fine Art Graduates/Post Graduates, Cartographers/Artists were available in all the district/divisional and HQ. Offices, but there was resistance and fear among the staff to adopt

ICT/Geospatial technologies in the beginning.

• To overcome the resistance and fear of officials, a number of training sessions on ICT/Geospatial technologies and their applications were conducted.

• Integrated SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA geo portals were modified from time to time to accommodate the technological changes as well as changes in tables, parameters, years and formats as per demand and GoI guidelines.

Socio-economic benefits

• These portals have reduced redundancy, inconsistency, inaccuracy, time lag, variations in formats, tables, years, levels etc. and improved the interoperability, transparency, reliability, scalability and visualisation of data in the form of information, knowledge and wisdom.

• Integration of SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA Portals have made possible to reflect the changes occurred in SPIDER, simultaneously on thematic maps generated by e-MANCHITRA Geo Portal.

• Three way data visualisation in the form of tables, maps

Biock Boudary

Dohri Ghat Block

Gram Panchayat Boundary

Village Boundary

River on Satellre lrnage

Gram Panchayat Name

Village Name

Ghaghara River

Fatehpur Madaun Block

and charts have become possible.

• Public representatives, planners, administrators, institutions, NGOs, citizens etc. are identifying the inter-GP, inter-block, inter-district, inter-divisional and inter-regional socio-economic disparities using these portals and bringing transparency in the strengthening of decentralized integrated planning and decision makings.

• Integrated geo portal has made people participation possible in planning and decision-making process and empowered demand for under developed areas.

• State government is saving more than `5 crore per year after the implementation of these portals.

• This is a step towards e-Governance to g-Governance.

Dr L R Yadav Senior Technical Director National Informatics Centre, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, MoC&IT, GoI, Lucknow e-mail : lr.yadav@nic.in

R S Singh Principal Systems AnalystNational Informatics Centre, Department of Electronics & Information Technology,MoC&IT, GoI, Lucknowe-mail: rs.singh@nic.in

Integration of SPIDER & e-MANCHITRA Portals has made it possible to reflect the changes occurred in SPIDER data simultaneously on thematic maps generated through e-MANCHITRA Geo Portal.

COVER STORY

Figure 4: Satellite view of Ghaghara River and surrounding GPs/Villages of Mau district

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