Chennai, Oct 08: The United Nations Development
Project (UNDP) has developed a software to record the damages
caused by the December 2004 tsunami in Tamil Nadu, as well as
the relief and rehabilitation activities undertaken by the
State Government.
The Tamil Nadu Disaster Management System (TNDMS), a
software developed in partnership with Price Waterhouse
Coopers, would enable information exchange and coordination
among civil society partners, bilateral and multilateral
agencies and government agencies, according to the quarterly
report of the UN team for recovery support.
"TNDMS is aimed at providing a beneficiary tracking system
by which the government administration will definitely get a
better handle on the amount of disbursements and the people
who benefited from a particular government order," the report
said.
The software, available in English and Tamil, has the
ability to go to the level of a single individual in a
village and could do aggregations of revenue from the village
level to that of the state level.
Apart from that, segregation could be done across
different departments to identify the financial outlays and
monitor the progress of work in each department. All
government orders have been captured in the software, which
will also help the revenue department track the progress of
work of different departments in districts across the state.
The software has a system where all grievances could be
addressed to the district collectors from any internet access
point, the report said and added that a separate section would
be accessible to the general public, who will also be able to
view the progress of rehabilitation work.
One round of training had been completed for the
identified government officers in each of the tsunami affected
districts. At present the data entry is being done by
individuals outsourced from a private firm.
Stating that the software was only "an initial hand
holding period until the government officials get conversant
with the software", the report said the state department of
revenue administration and disaster management and mitigation
would ultimately own the software.
In all, 12 information technology facilitators had been
placed in tsunami affected districts. Once successfully
tested, it would become a model software for any disaster in
the country, the report said.
Bureau Report
