• September 15, 2022
• Culture

Government of Odisha in Odia Language, Literature Department are deputing over 6000 Cultural Troupes (CTs) in a year for various festivals, functions and events at the request of various Organizations/Institutions/Agencies in past few years and have been paying for their performance and transport to a tune of Rs.10 Crores in a year. This includes CTs sent to Outside State cities where there are cultural organizations of Odia people. The aim of this initiative is to spread various facets of our diversity in culture especially in performing arts across the State of Odisha and beyond State boundaries. All this process is being done manually for which one section of officials and one officer in the rank of Deputy Director are engaged through out the year without any break even on holidays. Even then, the payment of performance fees for CT is pending for over four months at any point of time. This mainly due to large volume of work, which are repetitive in nature.

The problems in the present manual application to approval process were many. They include lack of transparency, lack of Equity, i.e. some CTs getting repeated orders for performance and many CT not getting work orders, last minute requests by Requesting Agencies (RAs) resulting in issue of verbal work orders and disputes thereof, long delay in payment for performance and pressure on authorities to sanction CTs in last minute. On several occasions, CTs could not travel to place of function due to last minute approval by the Department.  This created a feeling of deprivation among artists who did not get any work from the Department. It was seen that many organizations/requesting agencies were applying for and getting CTs on several occasions during a year without any limit.

Why CTMS Web Application:

In order to have a fair, transparent, efficient and convenient process and to provide equitable opportunity to all the artists of Performing arts, the CTMS web application was conceived. The objective of the web application was to process the entire work flow online without any human interface from Registration of CTs and their audition at District level to registration of RAs and their request for any CTs as per their choice of top 5 in waiting list of particular category of performing arts to approval and issue of work order by Dept. to feedback of both RA and CT about each other to processing of payment and direct transfer to bank accounts of concerned CT within fixed timeline. As this required lot of planning and involvement of District functionaries apart from integration with IFMS of Finance Department and also with a bank payment gateway for payment of RA fees, a developer M/s Luminous Infoways was selected through Idcol Software Limited (ISL) to implement the project.

Process Reengineering:

Online Registration forms were designed for registration of CTs and RAs with minimum but essential fields. Category and sub category of performing arts were finalized under three broad heads of Music, Dance and Drama after discussion with Odisha Sangeet Natak Academi. Guidelines for deputation of CTs for both CTs and RAs were finalized after discussion with few stakeholders. An eight Digit unique alphanumeric code was developed for each of the CTs and RAs.  It was decided to generate a QR coded work order from the system for double security.

It was decided to provide a dash board to each registered CT from where they could access their work order, upload their feedback about RA through Performance Report apart from Photo of Performance and track their payment processing. Similarly, dashboard for each registered RA was to be provided from where they could select the CT of their choice in any category of performing arts from among the top 5 CTs in waiting list after consulting them and upload the performance report of CTs after performance to complete the feedback.

Work flow and Basic Features of the CTMS web Application:

• The entire process is online from registration of CTs to payment of their performance fees to their bank account.
• The CTs have to register in ctms-ollc.in with certain basic information about the team members, team leader and bank account details. The mobile number of team leader is verified through OTP. The CT is assigned a temporary ID.
• The team is called to perform for audition before a jury of renowned artists at District level by the District Culture Officer (DCO) thru SMS generated by the system.
• Based on their performance, the jury either approves the team as fit to perform in particular art form or asks the team to improve their performance.
• DCO feeds the approval info to the system and the CT is registered in the CTMS and a unique 8-digit alpha numeric code is generated for the CT. CT now can log into the system with ID and password.
• RAs have to register in ctms-ollc.in with certain basic information about the agency/organization and person heading the same. Here also the mobile number of Agency Head is verified through OTP.
• Each private RA can register into the system only on payment of Rs.1000/- through the HDFC payment gateway integrated with the CTMS web application. However, Govt. agencies are exempted from such payment. A unique 8 digit alphanumeric code is generated for the RA after above payment.
• The RA will key in the details of the event/program and then, choose the CT of concerned performing art category from among top 5 wait listed CTs shown in the drop down menu. The wait listing in any category of art is based on time and date of approval of CT by District jury after audition and entry by DCO in the system.
• RA will speak with the team leader of CT selected ( his/her contact no. would be in dropdown menu) and after CT’s consent to participate in the proposed event, select the CT. An OTP would be sent to CT team leader’s mobile, which s/he needs to communicate to RA head to confirm in the system. RA will submit the request online.
• This request has to be done 25 days before event as system would block all dates up to 24 days before the event. For example, for an event on 10^th of October’2022, the RA has to submit its request on or before 15^th of September’2022.
• The request would land up in the dashboard of the ASO who would process it to DD/Director/Secretary/Hon Minister as per level of delegation for approval of the request.
• Once the request is approved at appropriate level, a QR coded work order both in Odia and English would be generated from the system and land in the dashboard of concerned CT and RA. A SMS message would also go to both. The work order has to be issued before 7 days of the event, otherwise, the system would block it.
• Based on work order, the CT would perform at the event organized by the RA on the scheduled date. Both RA and CT have to submit their feedback with in 7 days of event in the system as per predesigned fields through their dashboard along with 2-3 photographs.
• While RA will assess the performance of CT on stage , the CT will assess the RA on its hospitality and quality of stage, light and sound equipment’s on a 4-point scale .
• The ASO will process the payment for performance and travel based on feedback received and as per scale of payment fixed by Department . After approval by appropriate authority, it would be processed trough IFMS of Directorate of Treasuries (DTI) and remitted directly to the account of the CT. The  payment would have to be completed with in 25 days of the event. Key Datelines in progress of CTMS so far:

1. 31^st January’2022- First meeting taken by ACS, OLLC Dept. with Developer and other stakeholders.
2. 5^th May’2022- Honorable Minister, OLLC Dept. launches the online registration of  Cultural Troupes (CTs) .
3. 20^th May’2022- DCO initiate the process of Audition of performance of CTs in Districts.
4. 25^th July’2022- Online Registration of Requesting Agency (RA) starts after integration CTMS with HDFC payment gateway.
5. 6^th September’2022- Honorable Minister, OLLC Dept. launches the online CTMS web application .
6. 10^th October 2022- CT deployment for all events after 10^th Oct’22 will be processed through CTMS Web Application.

Other Features of the Web Application:

• One RA can request a maximum of 5 Troupes in a financial year.
• The chance for a CT of a particular category of performing art to get a second performance request would come only after all CT of same category have got at least one request and have performed once.
• The web application is end to end without any human interface at any stage except at performance audition stage in the District, which enables good CTs to enter the system.
• The feedback system would help the Department to grade both the CTs and RAs in future.
• A help line 0674-2432915 has been functioning in the Directorate of Culture on all working days in between 10.30 AM to 5.30 AM. A dedicated e-mail ollc@gmail.com has also been created to receive feedback from the stakeholders.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it is hoped that most problems faced by stakeholders would be sorted out by the CTMS web application . However, educating the stakeholders in the new system would take some time. Hopefully, CTMS would withstand the test of time and would come out successful as a transparent, equitable , efficient , convenient  and user-friendly initiative.  It could also facilitate digitizing the present manual system of  Grants to Cultural Organizations by  OLLC Department  in days to come.