Shillong, Apr 24 (IANS): The Meghalaya government's Planning Department's key initiative of "e-Proposal System", wins the coveted UN Award - World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum Prizes 2022, officials said on Saturday.

The "e-Proposal System", part of Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA), eliminates 75 per cent physical work of files in government departments.

An official of the state government said that Meghalaya was selected among the top 360 projects across the world.

Out of these, UN selects the top five in 18 categories and awards them as Champion Project.

Meghalaya has been selected by the UN as Champion Project in the category of - "The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of Information and Communication Technologies for development," along with projects from Australia, China, Argentina and Tanzania.

One among these top five would be declared a Winning Project. Meghalaya e-Proposal System is poised to win the winner award also, for which the award giving ceremony would be held on May 31 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The e-Proposal system now automates sanctions and administrative approvals of all the departments and directorates in Meghalaya and delivers government services with desired outcomes to all the citizens and other stakeholders across Meghalaya in an integrated and seamless manner.

Earlier, the sanctions and approvals would take months to be processed, but now with the automation, the process does not take more than a couple of weeks.

This initiative has been supporting the state in seamless tracking and monitoring of the schemes and approvals, with the click of button.

Additionally, integration with the government's finance system to process cash transfers and benefits to citizens, has been a game changer in effective and efficient service delivery, an official statement said.

Speaking about winning the UN Award, Vijay Kumar D, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Planning Department, said: "We are thankful to all for voting Meghalaya's Project into the top five. We feel that the e-Proposal System will be a game changer in effective governance and would also inspire other states in the country to adopt similar initiatives."

MeghEA is a flagship initiative of Meghalaya Government, supported by National e-Gov Division (NeGD), a first of its kind in the country.