Finance & Planning Minister Manpreet Singh Badal today launched two state specific GIS portals during an event organised at Punjab Bhawan by Economic and Statistical Organisation (ESO), Department of Planning, Punjab in collaboration with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India and Punjab Remote Sensing Centre,Ludhiana.Divulging the details, the Minister said that Punjab GIS and Village GIS portals would give a big boost and encouragement to the efforts of the various departments of the State Government in making use of the GIS (Geographic Information System) technology for day to day governance as well as for delivery of public utility services thereby giving impetus to the overall development of the state and prosperity of its people. Mr. Badal said that the portal https://vdpunjab.ncog.gov.in/login has more than 250 indicators of village Directory prepared by ESO which would be helpful for comprehensive planning and development of the villages at the grass root level. Likewise, he said that portal https://punjab.ncog.gov.in/admin/gisModule includes key departments of the state government like Animal Husbandry, Canal, Census, Education, Health, Sewa Kendra, MPLAD, Tourism and Water Resources besides others.The Minister said that GIS technology has enormous potential for decision making at grass root level.
Emphasizing the need to adopt GIS technologies for planning and other informed decision making purposes in government, he said that all the major departments of Punjab were covered in the first phase of Punjab GIS. Mr. Badal envisioned that these two GIS portals viz. Punjab GIS and Village GIS would be quite useful for planning purposes in the state.During the function Additional Chief Secretary Governance Reforms Mr. Anirudh Tewari stressed on integrating the GIS and IT technology which may help government to frame the robust policies for benefit of people. He emphasized to use the GIS technology much more efficiently in Agriculture, Water Resources, Rural and Urban development planning.In his address, Economic Advisor to Govt of Punjab Mr. ML Sharma said that Geographic Information System (GIS) provides effective decision making tools for policy framework and day-to-day planning. GIS technology offer excellent movement to understand the matrix of natural, social, cultural variations and prepare a roadmap for future challenges.Mr. Abhishek Singh, President & CEO, NeGD, MeitY, Government of India emphasized on the need to institutionalize a mechanism for integrating GIS technology and its application in governance and development. Likewise, Dr T P Singh, Director General, BISAG-N, MeitY, Govt of India said that GIS technology has enormous potential for governance and decision making processes and he emphasized to utilize the GIS for monitoring and mobilization of resources. He appreciated the efforts of Punjab Government for creating the GIS database.On the occasion Joint Director, ESO Mr. Harvinder Singh and Project Leader Dr. R K Setia said that launching of these portals was a historic decision as it would play a pivotal role in ensuring comprehensive development of state in an effective manner.