Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Oct 26: To help the State Government in its e-Governance initiative, Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology (IT), Sachin Pilot, today announced sanctioning of Rs 40 crore for Common Service Centre (CSC) project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pilot and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah launched country wide outreach programme from Omar’s Ganderbal constituency this afternoon. The two leaders jointly launched CSC a day after Pilot said in Rajouri yesterday that the NC-Congress coalition was doing a commendable job in the State and will surely form the next Government as well. “The UPA will easily form the Government at the Centre and in Jammu and Kashmir it will again be the Congress and National Conference alliance in power,” Pilot said yesterday.
After the launch, while addressing a gathering at Ganderbal, Pilot said: “We are committed to fully support e-Governance initiatives of Jammu and Kashmir Government and Rs 40 crore has been sanctioned for CSC project in the State.”
The launch rolled out the Phase-I of the prestigious programme in 11 states across the country and the campaign will cover 115 CSCs, known as Khidmat Centers, in 5 districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Union Minister said that CSCs are a crucial part of national e-Governance project which is a major initiative for improving the quality of basic governance. He said one lakh CSCs across the country are providing various Government services to the people which including birth, death, domicile, caste, income certificates, MGNREGA payments, computer courses, financial services, online railway and airline ticket booking.
Pilot announced an extension centre of National Institute of Electronics and IT would be shortly opened in Leh township of Ladakh region. “It will have the capacity to train 50 students at a time. This will provide employment opportunities to youth of the area,” he said.
The Minister also announced Rs 7 crore for computerization of all colleges associated with Kashmir University Computerization Project. He said 16 educational institutions have been identified for connection to the National Knowledge Network (NKN) for shared learning and high quality collaborative research and e-learning. He said of these, 10 have already been connected and the rest are in the process of connection.
Pilot said that Government Medical College, Srinagar, Central University of Kashmir and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology would be integrated into NKN by end-November. “Central University at Jammu, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology for Kashmir, and Defence Institute of High Altitude Research at Leh would be connected by December”, he added.
While speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah termed the e-Governance as a key tool in bringing transparency in the mechanism. He said that the IT-based initiatives will help ensuring speedy delivery of services.
Omar said that e-governance will give considerable fillip to ensure prompt delivery of public services. He said his Government has taken a slew of measures to ensure technology-based delivery of services. He said initiatives like e-tendering and e-procurement in various departments have upgraded the quality of service and brought more transparency in functioning.
He said CSCs will get strengthened by this programme and help providing services like ration card, state subject, death and birth certificates, driving licenses and revenue papers in a hassle-free manner.
The Chief Minister asserted that the IT initiatives will also help in effective execution of the Public Service Guarantee Act which aims at providing services in a time-bound manner.
He said that information technology is being utilized in the health sector in the state to strengthen it and develop linkage of State health institutions with the reputed institutions across the Country and abroad.
Chief Minister said Tele-conferences on medicine and remote surgery utilizing IT methods have been introduced in the State. “We have to move fast in the sector to upgrade it and utilize IT initiatives to keep pace with other states and obtain maximum benefits of the modern technology”, he added.
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