Making services accessible to common man through E-Governance CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION THECHNOLOGY MEETS
	12:13 IST

Government of India is implementing the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with the vision to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common services delivery outlets - Twenty-seven (27) Central, State and Integrated Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) have been identified under the NeGP to ensure availability of e-Government services. This was stated by Shri A.Raja, Minister of Communications and Information Technology last evening. Shri Raja was addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry. Subject of the discussion at the meeting was Common Service Centres and State Wide Area Networks (SWANs). Three pillars of NeGP for delivering services at doorstep of the citizen are: State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) for Connectivity ;National Data Bank/State Data Centers (SDC) for secure, data storage and Common Services Centers (CSC) as the primary physical front-end, Shri Raja said. The SWAN Scheme was approved in March 2005 with an overall outlay of Rs. 3334 crores to be spent in five years. The Scheme would establish Wide Area Networks in 29 States and 6 Union Territories across the country from the State Headquarter to the Block Level. This would provide a minimum connectivity of 2 Mbps from the State to the District, subdivision and Block level. This would be an extremely reliable, broadband secure connection and would function as the Government intranet. Implementation of the Scheme is in full swing with proposals of 28 States and UTs having been approved with the balance to be approved shortly, by the designated Empowered Committee. The State of Goa and the UTs of Andaman & Nicobar are not inclined to adopt the Scheme. Once implemented, the SWANs would go a long way in providing a network for G2G functions and for delivering G2C services, particularly in delivering the various services planned under the Mission Mode Projects of the NeGP, the members were informed. The Aim of the CSC Scheme is to establish 100,000 rural kiosks across the country with an equitable geographical spread - one CSC for every six census villages, through a Public Private Partnership. All CSCs would be broadband, internet-enabled, primarily through wireless connectivity and would provide for a mix of Government and private services at the doorstep of the citizen. The CSC is the delivery infrastructure for Government Services and in a sense would be the front end for the NeGP. The Scheme was approved in September 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs. 5742 crores over a four year period. Out of this cost, the Government is estimated to bear an expenditure of Rs. 1649 crores, with the balance coming from the private sector. The Government is not providing any upfront capital subsidy for the Scheme. The CSC infrastructure is to be set up by private entities at their own cost with the government only providing financial support (viability gap funding) for running these centers for a four year period, once the CSCs are established. The actual quantum of financial support to the private entities would be determined through a competitive process. The Scheme is currently under implementation and proposals of 26 States and UTs have been sanctioned till date. Shri Raja said that once the Scheme is implemented, it would go a long way in meeting the vision of the NeGP, which is to provide government services at the doorstep of the citizen. The CSC Scheme with such a geographical spread is a unique scheme, which is being implemented in a PPP framework and attempted for the first time in the World. Timely implementation of the Scheme is dependent on the ownership and initiative by the respective State Governments. So far the response and the support from the State Government has been quite encouraging, however, a lot need to be done for delivery of G2C services to the citizens through the CSCs. Dr.Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology also attended the meeting. The following Members of Parliament were present at the meeting: S/Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve, Vanlalzawma, Sanat Kumar Mandal, Sita Ram Yadav, Kunwar Rewati Raman Singh, Datta Meghe, Prof.Ram Deo Bhandari. SRK/ska