OST Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Sep 14:

With a view to providing at least six common services to all tahasils by the end of December this year, the Odisha government has asked the IT department to make necessary efforts in this regard.

Reviewing the present status of the ongoing state e-Governance project at the State E-Governance Apex Committee meeting at the State Secretariat here on Friday, chief secretary JK Mohapatra said rolling out of these services will provide a boost to Common Service Centers (CSCs).

He has also asked the department to initiate steps for assessing the functionality of CSCs by a third party and suggest necessary measures to make those more effective as well as user-friendly for common people in rural area.

The meeting resolved that the CSCs will be set up in all the 6234 Gram Panchayats (GPs).

As per the available data, a total of 5427 CSCs, set up till August 2013, have been providing services including payment of electricity bills booking of railway tickets and online application for college admission etc.

It was decided that more G2C (the online non-commercial interaction of local and Central government and private individuals) services will be available after the e-district project rolls out across the state.

CSCs will be provided official space at Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendra at the GP level.

At present, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has taken up the horizontal connectivity of State Wide Area Network (SWAN) to 1266 offices including 317 tahasils, 188 sub-registrar, 165 treasuries, 103 ULBs, 375 health institutions, 30 DRDAs 30 sadar blocks, 58 sub-collector and 3 ADM offices on war-footing.

Time schedule has been fixed to provide connectivity to all offices by October 31, 2014 in a phased manner.

The chief secretary asked the department to expedite the process and accomplish the task well before the time line.

The e-district project, successfully implemented in Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts on pilot basis, covers six services like issue of income certificate, residence certificate, caste certificate, solvency certificate, legal heir certificate, SEBC/OBC certificate.

The chief secretary directed the IT department to add delivery of birth and death certificates with these 6 services to 28 districts.

Among others, development commissioner Injeti Srinivas, additional chief secretary, revenue and disaster management Taradatt, additional chief secretary, finance UN Behera, principal secretary, water resources, SC Mohapatra, secretary, IT Madhusudan Padhi, secretary, school and mass education Usha Padhee, secretary, labour CTM Suguna, principal secretary, higher education GK Dhal, additional secretary, IT DP Das along with senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.