It all started as a file management and tracking exercise to ensure transparency in government departments. But the e-patravali pranali, a web-based file tracking system, has also helped government departments ensure the speedy disposal of files, apart from ensuring less paperwork and also less corruption.

The scheme is a part of the Centre’s e-governance initiative. Currently, two state government departments which are actively using the e-patravali pranali are the state finance department, where it is on a trial run, and the UP Board of Revenue.

Officials and staff at these departments say that after the introduction of this software, efficiency levels have improved and their work has got simplified. Both the departments get a large number of files on government schemes and projects. Files are received in various offices and, after showing them to the officers concerned, are sent to the respective departments that have to deal with them.

This is where corruption creeps in as files are often delayed or at times lost. With e-patravali pranali, every time a file or a letter comes into the department, it is given a unique identification number, through which its details are recorded in the e-patravali software’s data. A printed receipt of this data entry is then pasted on the manual records register, which ensures that every file has a soft and a hard copy for its entry.

As soon as the file is recorded, the departments keep updating details of where the file has been sent, to which employee or department it has been marked and for how many days it stayed on a particular table.

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