Tarun Gogoi urges Ravi Shankar Prasad for Central help to e-governance projects

GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has urged Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for Central financial assistance to e-governance projects to realise the declared goal of a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

IT projects like e-District, State Data Centre (SDC), State Portal along with State Service Delivery Gateway (SP and SSDG), Common Service Centres (CSC), State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and Capacity Building under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGAP) were earlier provided financial assistance from the Centre, said a government release here.

In addition to the central components, some of these projects were supplemented with state funds to include additional infrastructure and services, it said.

However, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology has informed the state government that the funds would not be allocated for the projects under NeGAP for the year 2015-16, the release said.

In a letter to the Union Minister today, the Chief Minister said the sudden discontinuation of financial assistance from the Centre for these projects would seriously hamper the implementation of these public service-oriented projects in Assam.

Gogoi stated that the Centre has launched the Digital India programme, but the state government has not yet received any details of the modalities and proposed fund allocation etc. till date.

He further stated that commitment of financial support from the Centre was necessary to fully realise the ambitious goals of this programme for the benefit of the people of Assam, the statement added.