The Centre is contemplating to bring in legislation to make it mandatory for every central government organisation and department to deliver public services using information and communication technology.
All central government organisations and departments in the country will soon switch to e-governance.
The Centre is contemplating to bring in legislation to make it mandatory for every central government organisation and department to deliver public services using information and communication technology (ICT).
High-level delegates from all ministries will be meeting next month to decide on a cut off date to switch to total e-governance.
Shankar Aggarwal, additional secretary, ministry of communication & information technology, who is also heading the e-governance initiative of the Centre, told DNA on Saturday, that the draft of the bill called ‘electronic service delivery’ is ready.
“A high-level inter-ministerial team would discuss the bill next month in New Delhi. Once the bill is ready, we will be sending it to all the state governments. It will be the prerogative of the state government whether to implement the act or not,” he said.
The benefits of the bill would include efficient, transparent and reliable delivery of web enabled public services in a definite and time-bound manner to citizens, thereby transforming governance.
“The whole idea behind the bill is to eliminate the need for citizens to go to government offices to seek services. Now we are in the process of seeking public opinion regarding the bill,” he said.
Before introducing it in the parliament, each ministry will assess its readiness and accordingly fix the timelines for mandatory electronic service delivery. However, no department will exceed a cut off date fixed for the country.
Aggarwal said the bill would boost the national e-governance programme for which the total expenditure is estimated between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000 crore.
He said as part of the implementation of e-governance programme, the central government would set up 2,50,000 common service centres by 2012, which will give a fillip to inclusive growth plans.
“It will be set up in every panchayat in the country and will be like a cyber cafe where a villager can send his requests for various government documents. The investment will be by private players and already companies like Reliance, Zoom and others are working on it,” he said.
He said that the common facility centres will be a single window for the citizens to access critical information relating to health care, agricultural advice, education, besides, infrastructure related information and tax matters.
Earlier, speaking at Indiasoft-2011, one of the largest info-tech global networking events in India, Aggarwal said that the demographic dividend that India is credited with can come only if the citizens are educated, healthy and productively employed.
The event was organised by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) in the city.
“ICT is the right tool to connect with the people and to resolve their problems in time and effectively. The e-governance programme initiated by the government in 2006 would substantially plug the digital divide. The skill development would be a major plank of the programme, which can enhance the employability of the people,” he said.
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