Govt aims to bring over half of India under e-district scheme

NEW DELHI: In a major push to e-governance at grassroot level for transparency, government today decided to cover 339 of around 620 districts by March next year by a system under which government services can be accessed through instruments like mobile phones.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss provision of government services at district and sub-district levels to citizens in electronic mode across the country.

The programme is planned to be achieved through measurable outcomes in terms of number of transactions, improved service levels, reduced service time and costs for the government and citizens.

Under the e-district programme, internet and mobile phones would be used for delivery of government services like ration card, birth certificate and driving licences in 339 of around 620 districts of the country by March next year.

The initiative is a part of e-Bharat programme for which government has received a financial support of around Rs 700 crore from World Bank .

Department of Electronics and IT (DEITY) has already set up mobile application stores which people can use to access government services in e-Districts and also mission mode project run by central government like services related to passports. At present, government has live 144 mobile applications which people can use for checking status of postal services, aadhar enrolment, rain information etc.

The Prime Minister at the meeting reviewed status of National Optical Fibre Newtork which aims to provide broadband connectivity at village level across 2.5 lakh panchayats.

During the pilot phase of NOFN, DEITY is running a 12-month trial project in 59 panchayats across Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura to design and develop a model for government services to people in those areas by use of internet.

DEITY officials apprised the Prime Minister of their plan to start cloud computing services project, MeghRaj, for government departments which will reduce investment and time on development of softwares that are to be used for e-governance services. Government has approved Rs 99 crore for Phase-1 of the project.