On October 21, the department of power under the government of Nagaland launched the online payment facility of electricity bills in the state. It is noteworthy that it is the first public utility department of the state government to provide online payment to the consumers. This will surely ensure that the government collect more revenue and also a big relieve for the consumers who had to stand in long queues in the short daily payment windows of a few hours that the department use to provide earlier. Consumers who regularly pay their bills had all the time felt harassed by the department for the short payment window that was provided on certain day of the week. The logic was never explained why it would refuse consumers who took the trouble to reach their outlets to pay bills.
Nonetheless, it is indeed an achievement that calls for jubilation on one hand. On the other hand it speaks volumes of the system of governance in the state that took almost two decades to enable online payment since the department first computerised its billing system in the nineties. Online bill payment through the Internet or through public kiosks were launched in most of the other states in India almost a decade back. The Internet came to Nagaland during 1990s and bank account holders in the state were also provided ATM/Debit cards since the early 2000s and finally mobile telephony was also launched around the same time. All these also indicates that somehow the government and the persons in-charge did not have any clear objective and a long term strategy for the department for quite some time.
However, at long last this has to be taken as positive step taken by the government and the officials of the department. It is indeed a big milestone for the state in converting a government utility service, government-citizen process, completely online. The ripple will also be felt by the other departments especially the Department of Information Technology and Communication. Its various projects like the State Wide Area Networks, Common Service Centres etc. now has more relevance with the launch of the online electricity bill payment system and would push more utility departments to opt for online transactions.
With the launching of the online payment, it is also perceived that it will be a big boon for those consumers who takes it upon themselves to pay electricity bills regularly and thus increase the revenue of the department. The next focus of the department should be to send the bill readers equipped with mobile EDC(Electronic Data Capture) machines. The department then only has to ensure that its bill readers are on time every month. It is also a good time for the department to have a relook and ensure that regular payers who it comes into contact regularly instead of the long list of defaulters are not harassed. The Department should also stop taking the fixed amount paid by consumers for street lights till such time the department can provide lights in our roads and streets.
