Launch of e-Awas portal and new citizen centric services

Chandigarh, 20^th February, 2017: With an aim to bring transparency and enable hassle free allotment of Government Houses, the Administrator U.T Chandigarh, H.E. Sh. V.P. Singh Badnore, today launched the e-Awas portal (http://eawas.chd.gov.in) which would enable online submission of applications by employees and also facilitate allotment of vacant houses through a bidding system. He also launched 4 citizen centric services - Registration for Widow Pension, Registration for Old Age Pension, Registration for Disabled Pension and Permission for Events.

The launching was done in the presence of Sh. Parimal Rai, IAS, Adviser to the Administration, Sh. M.P Singh, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Sh. Anurag Agarwal, IAS, Home Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, Sh. Baldeo Purusharth, IAS, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation,   Dr. S.B. Deepak Kumar, IAS, Secretary House Allotment Committee (Upper)-cum-Secretary Information Technology, Sh. Jitender Yadav, IAS, Director Information Technology and Secretary House Allotment Committee (Lower).

Speaking at the occasion, the Administrator said “Administration should continue to strive towards improving quality of service to residents and especially poor. Also employees are the arms of the government and they should be appropriately empowered and motivated. This is a unique occasion wherein both citizen and employee centric services have been launched. I congratulate the U.T Administration for such an innovation.”

Sh. Parimal Rai, IAS, Adviser to the Administrator said “Chandigarh Administration is committed to the mandate of Govt. of India under Digital India which emphasises leveraging technology for the benefit of the citizens. We have initiated multiple IT related initiatives in various Departments and I am sure we will see many more citizen centric projects in the near future. Our aim is to transform Chandigarh into a digitally transformed knowledge based society.”

Dr. S.B. Deepak Kumar, IAS, Secretary House Allotment Committee (Upper)-cum-Secretary Information Technology said “Allotment of houses was a big challenge. There was no centralized system and the data was scattered. We have consolidated the data, on-boarded various departments and created a transparent mechanism where employees can bid for houses of their choice as per seniority. I believe the initiative would be highly beneficial to the employees”.

Speaking at the launch, Sh. Jitender Yadav, IAS, Director Information Technology and Secretary House Allotment Committee (Lower) said “The e-Awas software is easy to use and will be time saving. It is comprehensive software for the employees of Punjab, Haryana, Punjab & Haryana High Court and Chandigarh. Besides online bidding, the process of application receipts, seniority list, house vacation and maintenance of house has been automated. It is backed by an efficient monitoring and controlling mechanism”.

The e-AWAS software has been developed by the NIC, UT Chandigarh. The features include applying for house, vacating houses, allotment details, generation and updation of seniority lists, rent payment details, bidding for vacant houses, handling of mutual exchange applications, employee grievance redressal and complaints, eligibility scrutiny, bills details and house maintenance. NIC has also developed a mobile-app to assist field inspectors to report status of houses. There are more than 13000 government houses in various categories across the UT which would now be catered to by e-Awas.

Also, the four new services launched today could be availed through any of the Sampark Centres from March 1, 2017. The applications would be electronically processed and digitally signed by the government officials. The use of manual process and paper has been minimized. Citizen would be provided with SMS alerts on application status also.