The state of Punjab has close to 4,300 GPWSCs. GPWSC is a committee responsible for water services which include water connection issuance, bill generation, payment collection, and operating & maintaining the water supply systems for the consumers of their respective villages/ Gram Panchayats. At the Gram Panchayat level, the list of activities such as water connection issuance, bill generation, and payment collection among others was a manual task, making the role of a revenue collector more tedious and time-consuming.

This also led to visibility concerns for the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS) who are responsible for ensuring that the water supply schemes are run sustainably by GPWSCs. mGramSeva application was developed by eGovernments Foundation to reduce the burden on GPWSC staff in raising and collecting water charges, as well as creating visibility of GPWSC revenue and expenditure for DWSS. mGramSeva was piloted in Sri Anandpur Sahib Division (APS) in Dec 2021, and today 83 out of 84 villages in the division have adopted the app.

mGramSeva enables rural local bodies to manage public finance – revenue and expenditures – related to water supply projects using a mobile app. The app is used by members of the water management committee and revenue collectors. The revenue collectors are able to add consumers (or households), generate bills, and issue receipt acknowledgments. Alerts and notifications are sent by mGramSeva on the registered mobile number of consumers, at the time of bill generation and payment. Digital bills and receipts are being shared over Whatsapp and SMS. To improve the water quality, supply, and overall service satisfaction, a feedback system is also available on mGramSeva that enables citizens to rate the service provided by the GPWSCs. The hierarchy of DWSS is as follows: DWSS->3 Zones-> 12 Circles-> 50 Divisions-> 4300 GPWSCs. Post the success of the APS pilot, mGramSeva app is being rolled out in the remaining 49 divisions. Capacity building and training sessions are being conducted, by eGov and DWSS teams, for field officials on app usage.

GPWSCs are usually understaffed or have the same person take on multiple responsibilities, and hence face extended working hours and regular visits on the ground (to households for raising demand and collecting user fees, as well as managing operations and maintenance of the water schemes).

Mr. Sukhdev Singh, who is the Pump Operator-cum-Revenue Collector of Mindwan Lower GPWSC of Sri Anandpur Sahib Division, is one such GPWSC staff who has multiple roles to play and hence is faced with added execution burden. Before mGramSeva, he would have to go door-to-door collecting user fees (INR 15,000 to 20,000 per month for ~200 consumers). This wasn’t the easiest of tasks as he would usually have to visit one household multiple times (once to raise the demand and a few more times to collect the payment). Post payment collection, he has to maintain/update payment records in the GPWSCs receipt book and also in the ledger books. This would take at least a couple of days every week since consumers pay on different days of the month.

Earlier, he would have to carry a huge ledger book along with him to enter collections that were done by visiting door-to-door. Now, this heavy ledger book has been replaced by the mGramSeva app on his smartphone, due to household register availability on mGramSeva, and demand for the entire village happens with a single click rather than having to go to every household. Even collections are streamlined now as demand is raised between the 1st and 5th of every month, and collections happen over the next week. Through mGramSeva, GPWSCs have access to the list of consumers who haven’t paid their water charge beyond the deadline. This information helps in focused follow-ups rather than multiple visits to every household to check on payment status.

He is 66 years old and yet has found the app easy to use and is pleased with the user interface of mGramSeva, and other features such as one-click demand generation for all consumers, feedback/rating options available for consumers, among others. This comes after his initial concerns about using digital technology for carrying out his duties. Many more revenue collectors and GPWSC staff are leveraging mGramSeva for reducing their implementation burden and are using the app to increase their collections (2X improvement in the pilot division) and also monitor their expenses more efficientl

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“I never thought I will be using an app, and will be able to use technology at this age so seamlessly. Earlier, I had to carry a huge ledger book to enter collections that were done by visiting door-to-door. Now, this ledger book has been replaced by the mGramSeva app.“

– Sukhdev Singh