By: Abid Gowhar
As a part of its commitment in the national common minimum program to introduce e-governance on a massive scale, the government of
The Government of India aims at providing support for establishing one lac Common Services Centers (CSCs) in six lac villages of
Eventually Karnataka became the foremost state in
The CSC thus became the title name of
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.
Some of States in
Different projects for a single mission:
Under the project “BHOOMI” in
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
The project “ FRIENDS” is the Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services in
“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
“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,
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.
“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 2nd 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)