E-governance in a cell-out mode

NEW DELHI: And now filing tedious application forms may be a palmtop away. The government is working on a road map for delivering government services such as filling forms and payment of utility bills among others through mobile telephony. This would also enable a citizen in a remote area without internet access to use mobile phones to access services like land records and employment exchanges.

The proposal comes in the wake of the popularity of mobile phones and the already existing infrastructure of mobile telephony in the country. There are 200 million mobile phone users in the country in contrast to about 36 million internet users, according to industry sources. “There are different channels of delivery and access of government services and we are not confining ourselves to the internet,” said a senior government official.

Even as it seems that the government has not as yet initiated any dialogue about the proposal with private players in the e-governance space, the proposal is welcome. “Given that there are only 130 cities that have access to internet as opposed to mobile phone coverage in almost all of India, we are also studying the possibility of mobile-governance,” Tata Consultancy Services global government industry group head Tanmoy Chakrabarty said. He added that they have already received a positive feedback about the concept from various state governments.

The official said that the government is also working out the details of setting up call centres or help desks for facilitating e-governance projects. Such help desks within the government domain are meant to assist citizens such as villagers in remote areas for better understanding of e-services. “ The details of setting up such call centres is being worked out,” he said.

E-governance projects that are carried out on a PPP model include Central government projects such as national ID, central excise, income-tax, DCA-21, passports/visa and immigration, pensions, banking, and insurance and the state-level includes projects such as land records, property registration, transport, agriculture, municipalities, gram panchayats, commercial taxes, treasuries, police and employment exchange.