E-Governance through CSC centers A Dream project, nearer to come true in J&K

By: Abid Gowhar

In the ensuing electronic age, where e-mail, e-bank, e-chat, e-paper etc. have become a cakewalk around the globe, where every corner of the life is embraced by technology and the livelihood of every common person is supported by tech savvy products and services, e-governance is no more a dream for those who govern a democratic country like India. Impressed by the other developed countries, the e-governance initiatives in India have been crucial developmental activities undertaken in the past few years.

As a part of its commitment in the national common minimum program to introduce e-governance on a massive scale, the government of India approved a National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in May 2006 to create specialized electronic service centers in rural-India.

The Government of India aims at providing support for establishing one lac Common Services Centers (CSCs) in six lac villages of India by the year 2010. The Scheme envisions CSCs as the front-end delivery points for Government, private and social sector services to rural citizens of India, in an integrated manner. The objective is to develop a platform that can enable Government, private and social sector organizations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners of the country through a combination of IT-based as well as non-IT-based services.

Eventually Karnataka became the foremost state in India in implementing many of such e-governance related developmental projects. Such projects were run by NGO’s and rural youth in the remote villages of the State by creating specified centers called Common Service Center (CSC).

The CSC thus became the title name of India’s e-governance plan with different local designations to provide high quality and cost-effective services in the areas of rural development, communication, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services.

Role of CSC

As per the envisaged project an ICT enabled CSC has to (a) provide citizen centric services of the State and Central Government in a convenient and efficient manner through the CSCs across rural India, (b) enhance the accountability, transparency and responsiveness of the Government to citizen’s needs, (c) provide efficient and cost effective methods of service delivery to departments and agencies, (d) allow private and social sector to collaborate with the Government to offer world-class services in rural India and (e) empower the rural citizen through information dissemination and market linkages.

Apart to act as an agent for various private and public services, it is mandatory for a CSC to deliver certain key government services like maintenance of land records, Registration of vehicles, Issue of certificates/ Government schemes, issue ration cards, IT enabled electoral services, pension schemes, road transport, public grievance and utility/Telephone Bills (Government undertakings).

The Business to Consumer (B2C) services included in the scheme are to provide public easiness for digital photos, web surfing, photography, DTP,email/chats, CD Burning, typing, printing and Form downloads/estimates. The financial services available at the Centre would be the delivery of low volume transactions like old age pension, electricity bill collection, small withdrawals and deposits, completion of certain steps of account opening and loan appraisal.

The Scheme creates a conducive environment for the private sector and NGOs to play an active role in implementation of the CSC Scheme, thereby becoming a partner of the government in the development of rural India. The PPP model of the CSC scheme envisages a 3-tier structure consisting of the CSC operator (called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE); the Service Centre Agency (SCA), that will be responsible for a division of 500-1000 CSCs; and a State Designated Agency (SDA) identified by the State Government responsible for managing the implementation over the entire State.

Some of States in India have also taken various other innovative steps to promote e-governance and have drawn up a roadmap for IT implementation and delivery of services to the citizens on-line. The applications that have been implemented are targeted towards providing G2B, G2C and B2C services with emphasis on use of local language.

Different projects for a single mission:

Under the project “BHOOMI” in Karnatka State, the department of Revenue has computerized 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7 million farmers in the State. The Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India has embarked upon a major programme to rollout Land Records Computerization in several States of the country.

The “E-SEVA” (electronic Seva) project launched in the year 2001, is the improved version of the TWINS project launched in 1999, in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Thes e-Seva centers spread across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad offer 118 different services like payment of utility bills/taxes, registration of births/deaths, registration of applications for passports , issue of births/deaths certificates, filing of Sales Tax returns etc.

The project “ FRIENDS” is the Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services in Kerala State. FRIENDS counters handle 1,000 types of payment bills originating out of various PSUs. The payments that citizens can make include utility payments for electricity and water, revenue taxes, license fees, motor vehicle taxes, university fees, etc.

“LOK MITRA” is first of its own kind of Electronic service in the state of Rajasthan. It aims to deploy Information Technology for the benefit of the masses. It is a one-stop, citizen friendly computerized centre located in the heart of the city in Jaipur. This has provided relief to a common man as he gets efficient services through IT driven interfaces at a single window.

“SETU” is a bridge for facilitation between Citizen & Government that is harnessing the benefits of Information Technology for effective and transparent functioning of the administration through IT policy of the Government of Maharashtra. It offers the possibility of making routine interactions faster, smoother and transparent.

“JAN MITRA” is an integrated e-platform through which rural population of Rajasthan through which people avail services related to various government departments at kiosks near their doorsteps.. This project has been successfully implemented on pilot basis in Jhalawar, Rajasthan. Jhalawar is the first district among five project location districts in India, where the project has been implemented before schedule.

“DRISHTEE” Project offers a software platform that enables e-governance and provides information about and access to education and health services, market-related information, and private information exchanges and transactions across the rural villages of Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa. It aims to be the window to the world' for Indian villagers. Drishtee services not only provide financial benefits in terms of reduced costs and increased incomes, but also other social benefits like access to education and health information. Drishtee kiosks provide viable employment opportunities for unemployed rural youths and help stem rural-urban migration.

In less than two years, Drishtee has successfully demonstrated its concept in over 90 kiosks across various Indian states. It is a state-of-the-art software which facilitates communication and information interchange within a localized intranet between villages and a district center. Apart from these projects in many of the north-eastern states a new structure of localized governance called Community Information Centers (CIC) were introduced , that are well-equipped with modern high-tech facilities and are running in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

A prestigious project ready to get launch in J&K State

Few months back J&K Bank has entered into a ‘Service Center Agency’ (SCA) tie-up with J&K government for setting up 1109 IT Kiosks in the state. The Kiosks, set up on a Franchiser-Franchisee basis, will act as Common Service Centers (CSC) for delivery of G2C (Government to Customer) and B2C (Business to Customer) services including financial services in all the rural areas of the state. The centers shall be called as “KHIDMAT” and run by Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) identified through a comprehensive selection process made by J&K Bank. This prestigious project will help the Bank in extending its services at the door-step in all the 22 districts of the state.

“We are ready to set up 250 CSC centers to the end of November 2009 across Pulwama, Anantnag, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Kulgam and Shopian, Budgam and Doda districts of J&K state” said, an Executive of the Bank associated with the project.

“To initiate their functioning, the “Khidmat” centers shall process banking loan documentation, social welfare pension disbursement, collection of public utility bills like electricity fee etc and other DTP works” The officer added. He however said that some state government departments are casual in their approach by not updating their departmental records electronically or not creating their electronic database.

Claiming high that the country is harnessing the benefits provided by the Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) to provide integrated governance, a faster reach to the citizens, provide efficient services and citizen empowerment through access to information, the story at implementation level throughout the country is still lingering despite the idea of a Smart Governance is well knitted in the books and projects.

Can we dream of getting our land revenue record without paying unwanted bribe to the most corrupted patwaris of the State?

Can these “Khidmat” centers help to demote our corruption ranking (ironically in 2^nd rank)?

Shall the electronic window get open to our rural farmers to minimize their cost and time delays?

Can our old age pensioners feel real relief in getting their monthly social welfare fund at their door-steps?

Can our rural educated youth find their way to the web-enabled services?

Can we think of getting or submitting recruitment forms without remaining in the long queues?

Is there a real possibility of obtaining school and college admission forms without quas and hectic procedures?

These questions will definitely find answer in coming two or three months after the “Khidmat” centers will start function by virtue of vigorous efforts borne by J&K Bank’s during last five months or so.

(Author is a freelance journalist/ broadcaster)