Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Odisha government, in partnership with Tata Power Ltd, has introduced a mobile application and portal called GCMS (Government Consumer Management System) to make it easier for Gram Panchayats to pay their power bills. The portal has been built by the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department in association with the SIC, Bhubaneswar, and Tata Power Company Limited.
Deputy Chief Minister KV Singh Deo opened the GCMS portal, and Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Minister Rabi Narayan Naik released the companion mobile app. Singh Deo thanked the Panchayatiraj and Drinking Water Department, NIC, and Tata Power for their combined efforts at the event. The program’s objective is to continuously supply rural communities with drinking water and road illumination while emphasizing responsibility and openness. The state’s gram panchayats collectively spend over Rs 250 crore a year on energy rates. However, unpaid electricity bills are a result of missed payments and a cumbersome monitoring system.
These issues are addressed by the GCMS portal, which was created by Tata Power Odisha Discom in collaboration with the National Technology Center (NIC), the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Department of Government of Odisha, and the Panchayati Raj Department of Government of India. Panchayats may quickly access, approve, and pay power bills through the portal, which is integrated with the e-Gram-Swaraj online platform, by using a secure one-time password mechanism. Stakeholders have expressed gratitude for the application’s successful testing in the Dhauli, Dakkua, and Bhirshal village panchayats of the Bhubaneswar block in the Khurda district.
