NalJalSeva: Empowering Rural Water Management With DIGIT

NalJalSeva, powered by the DIGIT platform, is designed for rural communities to independently manage their water supply infrastructure. The solution allows users to add new consumers, generate demand, collect revenue, and record expenditure transactions. It simplifies record-keeping, maintains a consumer database, monitors user charges, and provides a unified system for benchmarking rural governance and operations.

The NalJalSeva solution design impacts the financial and operational governance outcomes in multiple ways. Some of these include:

• Empowering Local Communities: Villages gain full control over their water systems, promoting long-term sustainability.

• Digital Governance: Built on DIGIT, NalJalSeva streamlines revenue and expense management, ensuring smooth operation.

• Transparent and Accountable: Financial and operational activities are visible to local governments, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Problems Addressed By NalJalSeva

The Finance Department and Water Supply and Sanitation Department have limited visibility over the fiscal sustainability of water schemes and get hit by the sudden demand for large funds to clear electricity bills.

The Department of Water Supply & Sanitation (DWSS) face several problems due to the lack of financial visibility of schemes:

• Unreliable and poor-quality water—Ineffective fiscal resource tracking often results in underfunding of water quality or treatment schemes.

• Inability to collect adequate water charges — Manual methods of revenue collection from households on account of water charges often lead to shortfalls. Pending dues often accumulate and adversely impact financial planning and proposed schemes.

• Lack of visibility of revenue and expenditure information - Inadequate financial transparency offers limited insight into how funds are being managed and spent by the local governing bodies. This creates financial blind spots, leading to misallocation of resources and unplanned expenses.

NalJalSeva helps digitise the revenue and expense records of Gram Panchayat Water Supply Committees. The dashboards and data insights provide DWSS and FD officials with visibility into the GPWSC's financial status.

The app offers capabilities to:

• track and manage the revenue and expenditure records using the digital platform

• share reports over WhatsApp

• access updated insights on consumer satisfaction/quality of services provided by local governing bodies

• view dashboards for a snapshot of collections and expenditures to the Sarpanch/other rural administrative officials

• access detailed collection reports from each household for accurate insights into consumption and demand

Approach

NalJalSeva integrates with the Fiscal Information Exchange (iFIX) platform to promote transparency and accountability in fiscal transactions. The fiscal events are posted on the platform in a standardised format making it easier to track and manage financial performance. The events are aggregated and processed to provide rich insights on key performance metrics which are available to users in the form of fiscal sustainability dashboards.

The illustration below provides a visualisation of how multiple actors interact with the distinctive Gram Panchayat Water Supply & Sanitation system registries to manage and coordinate various fiscal events. The key actors or stakeholders of the system include system administrators, department workers, local governing bodies, citizens and collection agents. Streamlined interaction between these actors is crucial for effective operations and management of fiscal events to facilitate sustainable and equitable access to basic services within the community.

The NalJalSeva app offers multiple benefits that promote the efficiency and transparency of water management services within local governing bodies.

• Digital book-keeping - maintains all receipt and expense records in digital format reducing the reliance on physical documents.

• Account management - simplified consumer and vendor account creation or management

• Low-effort operations - easy to use and environmentally friendly

• Minimise manual work - a simple mobile app that saves the time and effort of managing revenue & expenditure transactions

• Environment friendly - digital operations ensure all accounts are managed digitally thus reducing paper usage

• Accountability and transparency - recorded fiscal events and data-driven insights available through performance dashboards ensure accountability and transparency in operations

• Seamless handover - easy to handover records from one to another Sarpanch

• Dashboard insights - configurable dashboards provide easy and effective visualisation of local governance performance metrics

• Better planning - helps in better planning and efficient fund management, leading to better services

• Builds trust - information sharing about GPWSCs’ performance with citizens helps build trust and confidence

• Online and cash payment - Online payment through multiple options - Netbanking, Credit/Debit Card, Mobile Wallets. Cash payment is also available

• Notifications and alerts - SMS alerts, digital bills and receipts shared on registered mobile numbers, active SMS alerts

• Consumer rating - Citizens can rate the quality of water services in villages/wards. It helps identify problems and improve water services.

• Full or partial payment - users have the option to make partial payment of bills

About NalJalSeva

A digital solution powered by DIGIT that enables the gram panchayat water committee to collect & manage revenue and expenditure.

NalJalSeva meets the objectives of the Jal Jeevan Mission launched by the Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation (DDWS), which aims to "provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India." The solution empowers the village communities with the ease of consumer management, billing, collection, expense management and monitoring water supply schemes.

The NalJalSeva mobile app enables rural local bodies to manage revenue and expenditures related to water supply projects. It is designed for water management committee members and collection agents. The collection agents can add consumers (or households) and generate bills and receipt acknowledgements. The app provides an intuitive interface for users at the local governance level along with insightful dashboards for effective decision-making.

Features

NalJalSeva offers multiple features required to manage revenues and expenditures (listed below).

• Create and maintain household registers

• Collect payments

• Download bills & receipts

• Add and update expense records

• Generate demands and bills

• Create and edit consumer details

• Access insights through rich dashboards

Section Overview

This section contains all docs and information required to understand NalJalSeva, its key features, functional scope, and configuration details. Click on the links below to learn more about deploying, configuring, customizing, and using the NalJalSeva app.

• Technology

• Architecture

• Demo Video

• Configuration Docs

• User Manual

Navigation Tips

• Click on the embedded links within the content to browse topic details

• Use the contents links available on the right side of the screen to move to a specific heading

• Find the list of Related Docs links at the bottom of each page to browse through additional product details

Contact Us

NalJalSeva is an app-based solution designed for rural water governance and financial management. It supports local governance by providing tools to support consumer management, billing and collection added to financial reporting.

The solution enables the governance bodies to maintain financial records following established procedures and practices.

Key Features Of Nal Jal Seva

The solution offers an end-to-end solution for managing rural water supply schemes, focusing on maintaining transparency and simplifying financial transactions. It enhances governance and simplifies tasks for local authorities while ensuring accountability.

Click on the links below to explore the NalJalSeva workflows:

Overview

All Gram Panchayats have a monthly billing cycle for water charges. The Scheduler automatically triggers on the “X” date of every month to generate demand and raise bills for non-metered connections.

• Metered connections do not fall under bulk demand generation

1. For the first month of go-live, it is only the arrears and no demand that is generated hence there is no bill to collect payments.

2. From the second month (X date of Month 2) onwards, demand is generated.

3. Once the demand is generated, a notification is triggered to all mGramSeva users.

   • Details of Notification

     • “Demand for water charges has been raised for <GP>. New Bill Amount is Rs. Xyz. Overall pending amount is Rs.AbcD”

4. Each non-metered household also gets notifications

   • SMS Notification with Bill PDF

     • Dear “username”, A new water bill has been generated against <connection ID>. Please download the bill using <link>

   • SMS notification with a payment link

     • Dear “username”, A new water bill has been generated against <connection ID>. Please pay the bill online to avoid late payment charges<link>

5. Revenue collectors can see a new card (Updated card from month 2 onwards) with information related to demand and payment collection on the HH Details screen.

6. There is also a demand collection tile/card on the home screen.

   • This is used in cases when the scheduler is not run (due to technical errors) and the Gram Panchayat wants to run it manually.

7. The system does nothing if the manual demand generation is done in the middle of the billing cycle for which demand has already been generated.

   • Manual demand generation helps only when the scheduler has not generated a demand for a billing cycle.

To explore the Demand Generation Logic refer to Bulk Demand Generation for Non-Metered.

In the Bulk Demand screen -

Service Category: Defaulted to Water Charges (Module)

Service Type: Defaulted to “Non-Metered”

Billing Year: Dropdown with the list of the financial years from the master

Billing Cycle: Dropdown with the list of billing cycles for the selected financial year

Clicking on Generate Demand triggers the demand for the given billing cycle based on the logic defined above.

Overview

1. Users are redirected to the View Consumer screen from the home screen via

   • Collect payments → Search Screen → Consumer Details Screen

   • Download bills & receipts → Search screen → Consumer Details Screen

   • Dashboard → Collections → Click on Consumer ID

   • Household Register → Click on Consumer ID

2. This screen contains all information related to HH

Static HH card displays the following details

1. New Connection ID (also displayed as a heading)

2. Consumer name

3. Father's name

4. Phone number

5. Old connection ID

6. Address - Door Number, Street number, Ward (attached)

7. Property type

8. Service type

   • for metered connections - the meter number is displayed

For Non-Metered Connection

1. If the bill is not generated (Post rollout until the first month)

   • Only the data Card is shown - No action is required

2. Once the first demand is generated - A new consumer bill/card gets generated and displays the following data points and actions -

   • Billing cycle – the latest billing cycle

     • Amount -

       • Current Amount - fixed charges applicable to the billing cycle

       • Arrears - Arrears from the first month (From next month onwards this field displays any unpaid dues)

       • Total Amount - Sum of current amount and arrears

     • Action Items

       • Download or Share Bill

         • Clicking on download bill prompts users to download the bill (Bill details are given in a separate user story)

         • Share bill (WhatsApp icon) opens sharing options to the phone OS and the user can share bills via WhatsApp

         • Message to go in WhatsApp “Please find Bill for water charges with Connection ID WS-83121-8312 generated on dd/mm/yyyy” along with bill PDF

         • Name of the PDF - “Bill ID”

       • Collect Payment

         • The Collect payment button takes the revenue collector to the payment collection screen

3. After the First payment collection is done

   • A receipt history block is visible only after the first payment transaction is completed through mGramSeva

     • A list of all the receipts is shown under this section as cards, with different data points as actions. Order of receipts is newest → oldest from top to bottom

     • Each receipt card contains

       • Receipt ID

       • Amount Paid

       • Paid Date

     • Actions

       • Download Receipt - Download the receipt in the Revenue Collector's phone as a PDF

         • Name of PDF - “Receipt ID”

       • Share (WhatsApp)

         • Message to go in WhatsApp “Please find the receipt for water charges with Connection ID WS-83121-8312 paid on dd/mm/yyyy” along with the receipt PDF

New Connection Before First Bill Generation

First bill is generated - Payment Collection is pending

2 payments made

For Metered Connection

1. If a bill is not generated (Post rollout until the first month)

   • A data card is displayed on the screen

   • Below the data card - the Card to generate a new bill is also displayed

   • This card contains

     • Last bill generation date - For the first time this is picked up from data entry. Next time onwards the system captures the last bill generation date

     • Days from last bill generation date - indicates to the revenue collector the number of days that passed since the last time a bill was generated.

     • Previous Meter reading - Displays the last read meter units

     • Pending Amount

       • Before the first bill is generated, the arrears are captured during data entry

       • After the first bill is generated, the pending amount includes the entire amount due for the specific user

     • Generate a new bill

       • Clicking on Generate a New Bill initiates bill generation flow for metered connection

     • Note - Users have to generate a bill to start collecting payments. Arrear amount collection also is not possible till the first bill is generated.

2. After the first bill is generated

   • A new consumer bill/card gets generated with the following data points and actions

     • Last bill generation date - date of bill generation

       • Amount -

         • Current Amount - Volumetric charges between 2 latest meter readings according to rate master

         • Arrears - All previously unpaid dues

       • Total Amount - Sum of current amount and arrears

     • Action Items

       • Download, Share Bill

         • Clicking on the download bill prompts users to download the bill for the respective amount (Bill details are given in a separate user story)

         • Share bill (WhatsApp icon) opens the sharing options of the phone OS and the users can share bill via WhatsApp

         • Message to go in WhatsApp “ Please find Bill for water charges with Connection ID WS-83121-8312 generated on dd/mm/yyyy” along with bill PDF

         • Name of the PDF - “Bill ID”

       • Collect Payment

         • Collect payment takes the revenue collector to the payment collection screen

3. After the first payment collection is done

   • A receipt history block is visible only after the first payment happens through mGramSeva

   • A list of all the receipts is shown under this section as cards, with different data points as actions. Order of receipts is newest → oldest from top to bottom

   • Each receipt card contains

     • Receipt ID

     • Amount Paid

     • Paid Date

   • Actions

     • Download Receipt - Download the receipt to the revenue collectors phone as a PDF

       • Name of PDF - “Receipt ID”

     • Share(WhatsApp)

       • Message to go in WhatsApp “ Please find receipt for water charges with Connection ID WS-83121-8312 paid on dd/mm/yyyy” along with receipt PDF

4. If a new bill is generated again by clicking on ‘Generate a new bill’ - the revenue collector goes through the bill generation flow and a single new card appears between ‘Generate bill’ and ‘Consumer receipts block’

The household masters have to be created in the system to initiate the demand generation and collection process. These consumers are also referred to as the household that regularly avails the water connection and supply.

Select the Create Consumer option from the list of tiles/cards on the home page. This redirects the user to the Create Consumer page.

Data element details for the consumer are listed in the table below -

Multiple connections (HH or household records) can be created using the same phone number.

• Phone numbers can be the same, but a new HH record cannot be created using the same old connection ID. The old connection ID should be different to create a new HH record.

A single HH record, cannot be registered in the system more than once. Trying to register the same record on the system again displays the error message “This connection already exists”.

Additional Notes & Validation

• Clicking on the Submit button creates the consumer master and a new consumer ID is assigned to the master. The consumer ID generated is based on logic defined as - “WS-<GP id>-<4 digit running seq No>”

• If the connection ID already exists, the system displays an error message.

• On first-time/new-load, all data entry fields and dropdowns are empty (since no records are prefilled except for the default fields).

• SMS is not sent to any user upon consumer (HH) creation.

• Submit is disabled until all mandatory fields are entered. Once all inputs are made, the button is enabled.

• Arrears demand:

  • Metered - The arrear demand for the period is created, where the From date is counted as the start of the Financial year and the To date as the period mentioned on the screen.

  • Non-metered - The arrear demand is created for the selected billing cycle.

Successful Actions

1. Successful creation of consumer records displays the toast message “ Registration successful”.

2. Closing this toast message, using the close icon, refreshes the page and the user sees an empty consumer creation screen.

Consumer information can be edited under certain conditions -

1. Before the first demand is generated in the system

2. After the first demand is generated in the system

Edit Screen

• Users with permission to edit consumer records can click on the Edit Consumer info tile on the home screen. This navigates them to the consumer search screen.

• Users can navigate to the Consumer Edit Screen from the search screen or the search results screen (Case when multiple search results are displayed).

• On the successful load of the consumer edit screen, all data parameters of the consumer are shown (with editable and non-editable fields).

• By Default - A new consumer ID is shown on the top of the screen and is non-editable.

The table below lists the editable field details -

Edit Options

1. In case there are arrears, demand is generated. If there are no arrears, demand is not generated.

2. Users can modify the arrear value. In such a case, demand is generated with the updated value.

3. Users can add arrear to the connection, for which arrear was zero at the time of creating the connection. In such a case, new demand is generated.

Clicking on the Submit button shows a nudge saying Details Submitted Successfully. Closing the nudge navigates the user back to the home screen.

The CTA is activated only when any field is changed or updated. Else, it is in an inactive state.

The users receive a link via SMS. Clicking on this link redirects the users to the login page of the NalJalSeva app. The users can log in from this screen or even reset their password in case they are logging in for the first time.

Language Selection

The link in the SMS redirects users to this screen which is the first screen which is the language selection screen. The user selects the preferred language and clicks on Continue. English, Hindi, and Punjabi are the supported languages with Punjabi as the default language. Localization in the screens is displayed based on the language selected.

User ID and Password Entry

The user enters the User ID, which is the registered mobile number of the user, and the system-generated password. Clicking on the Continue button logs in the user.

Forgot Password

The Forgot Password link navigates the user to the password reset screen.

On Successful Login or Validations of User ID and Password

First Time Login

The user is redirected to the password reset screen where they enter the OTP received on the registered mobile number. The next screen prompts the user to enter a new password and then confirm the same. This is similar to the first-time login screen. Clicking on Submit displays the acknowledgement screen. Clicking on the Continue to Login button on the acknowledgement screen takes the user to the login page.

Subsequent Login

The user is redirected to the home page of the application which displays the menu options based on the mapped user role.

Once the demand is generated for metered and non-metered connections, revenue collectors come to this screen to collect payments.

1. Users can see the consumer billing information on the screen

2. Clicking on View Details expands the card and shows more details. Clicking on the Hide Details collapses the card to show only the Connection ID, Consumer Name & Total Due Amount.

3. Payment amount - can either pay

   • The full amount, or

   • Custom amount - Users can enter the custom amount in the input field - this cannot be zero or greater than the total due amount.

4. Payment methods

   • Cash - select cash and proceed to payment takes the user to the successful collection screen

   • Online - The online payment option displays a Q/R code on the user screen that can be scanned by another phone to pay the due.

   • Post payment via any mode - payment success screen is shown

   • Receipt ID format - RB-dd/mm/yyyy-yy/running_sequence_number

5. User Actions

   • Download receipt - download the PDF version of the receipt with the receipt ID as the name of the PDF while downloading.

   • Share receipt via WhatsApp - opens the Phone OS sharing options.

   • back to home - takes the user back to the home screen.

6. SMS to HH

   • As soon as the amount is paid and the Revenue collector reaches the Payment success screen SMS is sent to HH.

     • SMS 1 - Dear ‘Username’, Paid Rs. X for water charges for bill period <Cycle>. Download receipt <link>

     • SMS 2 - Dear ‘Username’, Please leave a review on water supply at <GP> at <Link>

     • HH can leave a review for water charges. Refer

Details on the card

• When an online payment method is selected, the “Collect Payment” option is disabled. Since HH scans the QR, the Revenue collector does not have control over the online process.

• The partial amount cannot be greater than the full amount.

The user of the GP system is onboarded by loading user records in bulk as a backend activity. The system enables the loading of user records in bulk and creates the profiles with a mobile number as login ID and with a random password.

On loading user profiles - The GP users are sent a link and login credentials over SMS required to login to the mGramSeva application. The link navigates to this screen and takes the user through the flow of logging in and resetting the password in case of a first-time login.

The web link, too, initiates from the same screen.

Unlike non-metered connections with a billing cycle for demand & bills generated automatically, a metered connection needs more inputs, which helps in volumetric billing.

A revenue collector can see a CTA to “Generate a new Bill” on the HH details screen.

1. Clicking “Generate a new Bill” takes users to the bill generation screen where new meter reading details are entered.

2. The field on the bill generation screen for metered connections is displayed in the table below.

3. Clicking on “Generate bill” takes the user to the bill generation successful screen.

4. Logic for Bill ID number - “RB - dd/mm/yyyy-yy/running_sequence_number”.

5. There are 3 user actions on the success screen

   • Download bill - Download bill as PDF (name of PDF is always the Bill ID by default)

   • Share bill on WhatsApp - Share bill as PDF on WhatsApp

   • Collect Payment - navigates the revenue collector to the payment collection screen

6. Share on WhatsApp opens the WhatsApp share popup with the option to choose contacts/groups. The bill is shared with the below text and attached PDF details -

   Text “ Dear <ConsumerName>, Please find water bill for billing cycle <Cycle> attached as PDF”

To find details on Demand Generation Logic refer to the Demand/Bill Generation for metered connection.

1. All 5 digits in the meter reading must be entered. Show error message “ Old Meter Reading entered is Invalid” or “ New Meter Reading entered is invalid” respectively.

2. The New Meter reading should be greater than the Old Meter Reading.

3. The meter reading date is by default set to <today's date> but the user has the option to change it.

The expense entry for the O&M regularly is captured on this screen.

On selecting the option “Add Expense Record” from the list of tiles/cards on the home page, the user is navigated to the expense entry screen. The screen displays the following fields.

On Submitting, the Expense entry gets created with a Bill number assigned. The Bill number generated would be based on logic defined as - “EB-<FY>-<4 digits running seq No>”

On Successful creation of expense entry, an acknowledgement screen is shown “Expense Entry successful” along with the Bill Number.

Expense modification is allowed based on the status of the payment as highlighted in the scenarios below -

Scenario 1: When the status is “Unpaid”

Allows users to modify all the details except the Bill id. But the user has the option to mark the Bill as “Cancelled”.

Scenario 2: When the status is “Paid”

Does not allow users to modify any details. But the user has the option to mark the Bill as “Cancelled”.

As soon as the revenue collector marks the bill as paid by the consumer, they receive one SMS with the link to the receipt in PDF format and another SMS with a link to collect feedback.

Users can walk through the application for a better understanding of different user actions available on key screens.

Home Screen

Note: For first-time users after login, the walkthrough automatically starts on the home page. For multi-tenant users, the walkthrough starts after selecting the tenant and landing on the home screen

Create consumer screen

Enter expense screen

Dashboard

mGramSeva users can edit their basic information like name, add gender, email and change the password using the hamburger menu on any screen.

1. Users can click on the hamburger menu from any screen. A slider from the left opens up.

2. Users can -

   • Change Language

   • Edit profile

   • Logout

3. Changing language changes localization as per standards

4. Edit profile takes users to the next screen where changes can be made to the user profile

   • Name - Can be changed

   • Phone number - Cannot be changed

   • Gender - This field is not present by default. Whatever the user enters is stored and saved

   • Email ID - It is an empty field. User input is stored as the user’s email id

   • Change Password - This takes users to the password changing screen where the old password, new password and confirmed new password have to be entered as per given standards.

     • Dynamic password validation happens the same as in the registration flow.

     • Until all fields are entered, the primary CTA is disabled.

     • Changing the password shows a nudge to the user “Password updated successfully” and closing this nudge takes the user to the user profile screen.

   • Clicking on save shows a nudge to the user” Details saved successfully”. Upon closing, this user remains on the screen but the fields show as edited.

There are 2 methods to generate Bulk Demand -

1. Auto (scheduler based)

2. Manual

Auto

The demand is generated at the end of the month or the first day of the next month or as scheduled for the recently completed billing cycle. Use cases are as below -

1. First demand generated in the system: The demand is generated for the recently completed billing cycle considering the arrears in the master data. The arrears are tagged to the previous billing cycle of the current demand.

2. Consecutive demands: The demand is generated for all the months pending from the most recent to the last billing cycle completed.

3. The demand is generated for the recently completed billing cycle.

Manual

The demand is generated for the billing cycle selected by the user. The demand is generated only for those consumers for whom demand does not exist for the selected month.

1. First demand generated in the system: The demand is generated for the selected billing cycle considering the arrears in the master data. The arrears are tagged to the previous billing cycle of the current demand.

2. Consecutive demand: The demand for the selected month is generated only if the previous billing cycle demand exists. If the demand for the previous cycle does not exist, it gives an error message “Demand generation is pending from billing cycle - <Name of cycle>. Please generate demand from this cycle in sequence”. The validation considers the most recent billing cycle that exists in the system.

Charges/Heads & Calculation Logic

As part of V1, only the water charges head is applicable. Rate Master is defined at the GPWSC level.

Water Charges - Charges are applicable as defined in the Rate Masters based on - Validity, Property Type, and Service Type where the calculation type is “Per Bill Cycle” for the given billing period.

Bill Period - The billing periods are monthly as per the standards followed across GPWSCs. In future, GPWSC may switch to bi-monthly to reduce the processing effort. The sample billing period data is given in the MDMS data.

Exclusion

• Reversion of demand is not allowed. This has to be done in the backend.

• Exception reporting for every batch processing can be accessed from the backend only.

The demand is generated for metered connections for the billing period (defined based on the meter reading date) selected by the user at the time of recording the meter reading.

The 2 use cases to be handled are -

1. First demand generated in the system: The demand is generated for the selected billing period. The demand period would be from the “Previous meter reading date” from the consumer master or the demand created as part of the master TO the date entered in the billing screen. The arrears are tagged to the previous billing period of the current demand, and the period is from the start of FY to the “Previous meter reading date” from the consumer master.

2. Consecutive demand: The demand is generated for the period defined based on

   • From Date: Meter reading date from the last demand generated for the consumer

   • To Date: Is the selected meter reading date in the bill generation screen

Charges/Heads & Calculation Logic

As part of V1, only the water charges head is applicable. Rate Master is defined at the GPWSC level.

Water Charges - Charges are applicable as defined in the Rate Masters based on - Validity, Property Type, and Service Type where the calculation type is “Unit Rate” for the given number of units.

Bill Period - Is as per the date range selected for the bill generation.

Exclusion

• Reversion of demand is not allowed. This has to be taken up in the backend.

For mGramSeva users, different notifications are displayed on the home screen based on various system triggers.

1. A new card is used for each notification displayed below.

2. Cards have a countdown timer - today, 1 day ago, 2 days ago, 3 days ago, and so on.

3. Cards have a close icon on the top right corner. Upon closing, the card view is removed from the screen. Cards, by default, do not have an expiry date.

4. A “New” text is shown to the user whenever there is a new notification after the user's last login.

5. The notification header shows the number of notifications in brackets.

Various SMS notifications are sent to different users on different actions. Below is a consolidated list of all SMS notifications required.

On selection of the “Modify Expense” option, the below search screen is shown for the users to search the Bill/s -

Search Criteria -

• Vendor Name

• Expense Type

• Bill D

Search Result - Lists all the Expense bills matching the above search criteria

• Bill ID

• Type of Expense

• Vendor Name

• Amount

• Bill Date

• Status

Clicking on Bill ID displays the Expense Bill in edit mode based on the validations.

Bill and Receipt PDFs can be sent to consumers at multiple touchpoints.

1. When bulk demand is generated through SMS.

2. When a meter reading is done for metered connections, via SMS.

3. When the revenue collector goes to the HH screen and clicks on download PDF (into his mobile).

4. When the revenue collector goes to the HH screen and clicks on WhatsApp share PDF (Share PDFs on WhatsApp).

Bill PDF

Receipt PDF

Users can click on the Household Register on the home screen and navigate to this screen. This provides a single-view snapshot of all pending collections by consumers to date.

Data Points

Clicking on the Back button takes the user back to the home screen.

Click on the preferred language button. The app functions and screens will be available in the selected language.

Enter the registered mobile number and the password received via SMS.

The user receives an OTP on the registered mobile number. Enter the OTP. Enter a New Password and retype the password to confirm in the Confirm New Password field. Follow the Password Hint on the screen while setting up the password.

Click on the Confirm button. The user password is now updated. Click on the Continue to Login button to log in with the new password.

Click on the relevant village tenant assigned to the user from the screen.

This redirects the user to the relevant NalJalSeva functionalities available for the selected tenant.

Edit Profile

Users can edit their profiles and change passwords as and when required. Click on the user icon on the top section of the screen. Click on Edit Profile to make profile changes.

Update Name, Gender, or Email ID as required. Make note that the registered Mobile Number cannot be changed. Save the changes.

Change Password

Click on the Change Password button to change the password.

Introduction NalJalSeva

NalJalSeva is a standalone app-based module that enables the GPWSC committee to create new consumers, generate demand, collect revenue, record expenditure transactions etc.

NalJalSeva enables GPWSCs to maintain financial records of GPWSCs following established procedures and practices.

Follow the step-by-step (links below) guide to use the app:

There is an option to download bills without clicking on collect payment.

Steps

1. Bills and Receipts can be downloaded by clicking on the card/tile named Download Bills & Receipts on the home page.

2. Clicking on this card takes the user to the consumer search page. Searching by a phone number/ connection ID redirects to the Household Detail page.

Clicking on the Dashboard on the home screen navigates the user to the revenue dashboard view for the current month. This provides a tabular view of the list of consumer records.

Data Points

The following data points/actions are needed on the screen -

Generate Bill

The Administrative user for a GPWSC/Village, i.e., a Sarpanch or anyone with admin access, needs to generate Bill (i.e., generation of monthly bills) for all the consumers. This activity is to be done at the beginning of the month and must be done only once per month. Sarpanch or anyone with admin access has the option to generate the bill for all consumers at once.

Steps for Generating Bill

1. Click on the Generate Bill icon on the homepage to bulk generate bills for all consumer connections entered in the app.
2. Users can select the billing year and billing cycle (month) and click on the Generate Bill button.

• Once the bill is generated, revenue can be collected from the users for the generated bill amount

Collect Payments

Payments can be collected for consumers with outstanding bill. The collection module can be enabled for revenue collector, treasurer and chairman, as per state's requirement.

Steps for Cash Payment Collection

1. Click on the Collect Payment icon on the home page to search for a consumer record by Consumer’s Phone Number or Name of the Consumer or Old Connection ID or New Connection ID.
2. Click on the Search button to select a particular consumer for payment collection.
4. If the consumer wishes to receive a soft copy of his/her bill, click on the Share Bill button to send the bill to the consumer on the registered mobile number via WhatsApp message.
5. Click on the Collect Payment button to collect the payment via cash.
6. Full Payment or Partial Payment to indicate whether the consumer is paying the bill amount in full or making a partial payment. Enter the Amount that is being paid by the consumer in case it is a Partial Payment.
7. Click on the Download Receipt button to download the payment receipt. Click on the Share icon to send the receipt to the consumer via WhatsApp message.
8. Click on the Consumer Receipt Print button to print the receipt for consumer through thermal Bluetooth printer

9. Once the payment is completed an SMS is sent to the consumer to confirm the paymen with a copy of payment receipt.

Clicking on the Dashboard on the home screen navigates the user directly to the revenue dashboard of the current month. From here, the user can switch to the expenditure tab to get a view of expenses. This provides a tabular view of all expenses incurred in that month.

Data Points

Following are the data points/actions needed on the screen:

The table on the screen is a horizontal scrollable one with the leftmost column fixed.

Create Consumer

Click on the Create Consumer icon on the screen to create a new consumer.

This opens the Consumer Details screen. Enter the requested consumer details.

1. Name

2. Gender

3. Father Name

4. Phone Number

5. Old Connection ID

6. Door Number

7. Street Name/Number

8. Ward Name/Number

9. Type of Connection

10. Type of Water Supply

11. If the Type is non-metered

    • Previous Billing year and cycle

12. If Type is metered

    • Previous meter reading date

    • Meter number

    • Previous meter reading

13. Radio Button

    • Arrears: Enter the Arrear amount and penalty as of the billing cycle.

    • Advance: Enter the advance amount as of the billing cycle.

Edit Consumer

Users can also edit the consumer details if any changes need to be made in the consumer record. Click on the Edit Consumer Details icon on the home screen to make the necessary changes.

Check the option Mark this connection as Inactive to indicate that the given consumer connection is inactive.

Click on the Submit button to save these changes.

Expenses Bill Recording

Users can enter the expense details as and when incurred. Click on the Add Expense icon on the home page.

Enter expense information like Type of Expense from the drop-down list available. The type of expenses can be Electricity, O&M, Salary & MISC etc.

Enter Vendor Name, Amount, Bill Date, and Party Bill Date. Select Yes or No to indicate if the bill is paid or not. Click on the Choose File button to attach a supporting document.

Enter the Payment Date if the bill is already paid before recording it into the system. Click on Submit to register the expense details.

The expenditure entry is saved successfully.

Modify Expense Bill

Click on the Modify Expenses icon on the home page to modify expense details. Enter the Vendor Name, Type of Expense or Bill ID details to search for the specific expense record which needs to be modified.

The system shows the expense records filtered by the search parameter. Click on the Update Expenditure button to modify a particular bill.

Make the necessary modifications to the bill. Update the expense type, or vendor name, amount, or bill date details as required.

Click on Submit to save the changes. Check the Mark this Bill as Cancelled box to indicate that the bill is cancelled.

Rate Masters can only be updated by Division Users. Login into your ID using your credentials. Check the Page for help.

Add Rates For Non-Metered Connection

1. After login, select the Village from the dropdown menu.
2. After selecting the village, the user will get the Menu panel meant for Division users. Here you will get the following options to use:

   1. Create user

   2. Search Village User

   3. Search Department User

   4. Rate Master Dashboard

   5. Edit Rate Master

   6. Edit Penalty Master
3. Click on “Edit Rate Master”. After Selecting the “Edit Rate Master”, User will get the following screen.
4. User can search by “Property Type”, “Service Type” and “Calculation Attribute” by selecting any from the dropdown.

5. User can search by “Property Type” by adding the value in the “Text Box”

6. Click on “Add Master Data” for adding new Master rate for the village.
7. After Selecting the “Add Master Data”, User will get the following screen.

1. Select the “Property Type” as either “Residential” or “Commercial”.

2. Select the “Service Type” as “Non-Metered”.

3. Select 'Calculation Attribute' as 'Flat'.

4. Enter the Minimum Charges in the given text box as the master rate of the village. For example, we have added 100, as shown in the screenshot below.

1. Click on “Add Data”

1. After clicking on 'Add Data,' ₹100 has been set as the master rate for the village Baho Yatri, as shown in the screenshot above.

Steps for Adding Rates for Metered Connection

If the user wants to add a metered rate for the village, please follow these steps:

1. Click on “Edit Rate Master”,

1. After Selecting the “Edit Rate Master”, User will get the following screen.

1. Click on “Add Master Data” for adding new Master rate for the village.

2. After Selecting the “Add Master Data”, User will get the following screen.

1. Select the “Property Type” as “Commercial”.

2. Select the “Service Type” as either “Metered”.

3. Select 'Calculation Attribute' as 'Flat'.

4. Click on Add slab for Metered Connections.
5. Enter the slabs defined by Panchayat or the Water Supply Department. For example, we have added as per the following:

   0 – 100 KL - 100 Rs.

   101 – 200 - 150 Rs.

1. Click on “Add Data”.

2. Metered Rated for Commercial Connection has been added by the system.

Updating or Disabling Rate Master

If the user wants to Update or Disable the Rate Master for the village with Non-Metered Connections, please follow these steps:

1. Click on “Edit Rate Master”,

1. After Selecting the “Edit Rate Master”, User will get the following screen.

1. Click on any existing Rate Master, as shown in the screenshot above, that the user wants to edit or disable.

2. After Selecting the existing Rate Master, User will get the following screen.

1. Click on “Take Action”.

1. To disable the Rate Master, click on 'Disable Master'. User will see message confirming that master has been disabled.

1. After Step 5, if the user clicks on 'Edit Master,' they will see the screen shown below.

1. Update the minimum charges to ₹100 as an example.

1. To enable a disabled Rate Master, click on the disabled Rate Master you want to enable.

1. For example, the user clicked on a disabled Metered Rate Master to enable it.

1. Click on ‘Take Action’.

2. Click on ‘Enable Master’

The journey of PFM Mission in Punjab began in January 2021 with signing of a tri party MoU among The Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances (DGR & PG), the Department of Finance (FD), Punjab, and eGov Foundation to provide a systemic solution to enhance public finance management in the state.

The pilot was agreed to be carried out in the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS).

Multiple learning sessions with the DWSS officials were conducted to gain in-depth knowledge on current processes and systems, pressing challenges, and how the Mission can design potential solution(s) to the identified problem/s. After these discussions, the following problem statement was identified:

Visibility into financial sustainability of GPWSC run schemes:

• The water charges (funds) collected by the GPWSC for their schemes and expenditures made thereof are not visible to the DWSS or the Department of Finance (FD)

• Such transparency is necessary since DWSS funds the asset creation and provides for O&M and electricity charges shortfall of GPWSC, if any

To solve the above problem statement, eGov Foundation in consultation with the DWSS, Government of Punjab, identified Anandpur Sahib (APS) as the pilot division to implement mGramSeva. mGramSeva, a mobile application, envisions to capture all the Revenue and Expenditure details in digitized format which will bring in accountability and transparency of GPWSC funds, as well as enable and empower frontline leaders of the Panchayats.

The mGramSeva solution adoption highlights are given below:

1. In APS division there are more than 76 schemes and 100 villages which are GPWSC run schemes, for which the water bills are generated manually

2. No automated or digital system currently in place to notify the household through SMS for bills generated

3. Manual recording all the receipts and expenses in cash book

4. Sarpanch does not have access to real time information on collection and expenditure

5. Household information records are maintained manually

Install AWS. Follow the subsequent steps to begin the setup of NalJalSeva.

We currently use the free Let's Encrypt SSL certificate, which is valid for 90 days and must be manually renewed afterwards. There are also several paid SSL certificate options available globally.

Service Architecture

NalJalSeva is built on top of the DIGIT Platform. It consists of distinct layers listed below.​

Back End - Core Services

1. ​User Services (egov-user)

2. ​User OTP (user-otp)

3. ​Access Control (access-control)

4. ​MDMS

5. ​ID Generation Service (id-gen)

6. ​Payment Gateway (pg-service)

7. ​Workflow Service (wf-service)

8. ​Persister

9. ​Indexer

10. ​Encryption Service (data-encryption-service)

11. ​Localization Service (localization-service)

12. ​Boundary Service (boundary-service)

13. Location Service (location-service)

14. ​URL Shortening Service (url-shortening-service)

15. ​PDF Generation Service (pdf-generator)

16. ​SMS Notifications (notification-sms)

17. Email Notifications (notification-email)

18. ​Filestore

19. ​API Gateway​

Business Services

1. ​Billing Service​

2. ​Collection service​

3. ​Apportioning Service​

4. ​Dashboard Ingest​

5. ​Dashboard Analytics (DSS)

Municipal Services

1. ​Property Service (property-services)

2. ​Water Service Calculator (ws-calculator)

3. ​Water Service (ws-service)

4. ​eChallan (echallan)

5. ​User Events (user-event)

6. ​Vendor​

7. ​IFIX Adaptor Integration Service​

NalJalSeva Architecture

The sequence diagram below illustrates a typical interaction between the various services. Sample sequence diagram for a typical flow of DIGIT Microservices.

Application Structure

Main Dashboard

The Dashboard provides the stakeholders at the department level with a consolidated view of the information on Revenue and Expenditure trends month-wise.

Revenue Dashboard

The Sarpanch, Treasurer and Secretary at the GPWSC level can view the collection details like Demand, Pending Collection, Actual Collection, Collection from Residential, Collection from Commercial and Collection from Others. The consumer-wise collection details view is also available.

The Sarpanch, Treasurer and Secretary at the GPWSC level can view the expenditure details like total expenditure, the amount unpaid, the amount paid, total bills, pending bills, bills paid, Electricity bills, O&M and salary. The individual expense-wise details view is also available.

Metered Connection

Click on the Generate Demand icon on the home page to search for a consumer record once the consumer is created. The application enables the users to search a consumer record by Consumer’s Phone Number or Name of the Consumer or Old Connection ID or New Connection ID.

Click on the Search button to view the consumer records. Click on the View Consumer Details button to perform the necessary action.

Users can see the relevant information of a particular consumer. Click on Generate a New Bill button to create a fresh bill. Enter the Previous Meter Reading, New Meter Reading and Meter Reading Date. Click on Generate Bill. A fresh bill is generated for the consumer.

Once the bill is generated, the user can collect payment for the particular bill. Click on the Collect Payment button to collect the payment via cash or online payment.

Click on the phone icon in green to share the bill with the consumer via SMS.

Enter/Update the Payment Amount or Partial Payment to indicate whether the consumer is paying the bill amount in full or making a partial payment. Enter the Amount that is being paid by the consumer in case it is a Partial Payment.

Select the applicable Payment Method as either Cash or Online. Users can also provide consumers with a scannable QR code to make the payment online.

Click on the Download button to download the payment receipt.

Click on the Share icon to send the receipt to the consumer via SMS.

Non–Metered Connection

Click on the Collect Payment icon on the home page to search for a consumer record by Consumer’s Phone Number or Name of the Consumer or Old Connection ID or New Connection ID.

Click on the Search button to view the consumer records. Click on the View Consumer Details button to perform the necessary action.

Click on the Collect Payment button to collect the payment via cash or online payment. Click on the Share Bill button to send the bill to the consumer on the registered mobile number via SMS.

Select Full Payment or Partial Payment to indicate whether the consumer is paying the bill amount in full or making a partial payment. Enter the Amount that is being paid by the consumer in case it is a Partial Payment.

Select the applicable Payment Method as either Cash or Online. Users can also provide consumers with a scannable QR code to make the payment online.

Click on the Download button to download the payment receipt. Click on the Share icon to send the receipt to the consumer via SMS.

Once the payment is completed an SMS is sent to the consumer to take the survey on the water service.

DIGIT being an open-source platform, all the tools and tech stack used to build, deploy and operate DIGIT - are also open-sourced and community edition. The tools used to set up, develop and deploy the NalJalSeva stack are listed below with the specific versions used and short descriptions.

Overview