e-Suvidha

e-Suvidha
[ 28 Jul, 2006 0406hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

LUCKNOW: No more serpentine queues for depositing electricity bills. The state government has finally announced the launch of its ambitious Smart City Project from August 8.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CMS, a private company which would act as a service provider, chief secretary NC Bajpai said that in order create and develop a bridge between the common citizen and the government departments, the Smart City Project unit (e-Suvidha) was constituted and duly registered as a government society.

He said that to start with, 32 centers would be established in the state capital for providing single window service to consumers for depositing their electricity, water, house tax, telephone and mobile bills.

Initially, the services would be restricted to depositing of electricity bills and there after in a month’s time, other departments like the BSNL, Nagar Nigam, UP Housing Development Board, Jal Sansthan, Regional Transport Office and the UP State Road Transport Corporation would be brought in its ambit.

Bajpai said that at these chains of computerised integrated citizen service centers some more departments including the district magistrate office, district police chief office, chief development officer office, passport office, tourism, Indian railways, trade tax and stamps and registration would be incorporated in the second phase.

Once this task is accomplished, people can fill their passport application forms, file return of income tax and trade tax, avail facility of getting reservation tickets for rail and bus, said the official.

The chief secretary said that the facility in due course of time would be extended to other major cities of the state.

Uttar Pradesh – Moving Ahead With ICT

Uttar Pradesh – Moving Ahead With ICT
	Zohra Chatterji, IAS, Principal Secretary, IT and E, Government of Uttar Pradesh
	‘Much before IT was recognized as the “Sunrise Sector” and the driving force behind the economy and the nation, the sun had already risen on it in Noida, Uttar Pradesh’. Known as the land of Unlimited Potential – UP is still the prime destination for National and International IT companies due to its close proximity to the national capital, New Delhi, highly developed infrastructure and a rich source of disciplined labour and technical manpower Noida and Greater Noida are fast emerging as one of the largest IT hubs in the world for RIM, BPO, Call Center and other related businesses. No wonder companies like Wipro, HCL, Adobe, Intel, Microsoft have either setup their bases in Noida or Greater Noida, or are in process of doing so. In this era of e-Governance and IT, Uttar Pradesh is surging ahead with a mission to take Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to every village, to every citizen, to every business and to transform the way Government works using ICT. The State Government has taken a number of initiatives in e-Governance – • An institutional framework has been put in place for development of IT industry in the State with committees headed by Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Sh. Nandan Nilekani, MD Infosys. • State and Department mission teams have been formed for identification of projects with public interfaces. • IT Policy has been modified to incorporate special incentives for the IT industry, like preferential allotment of land, continuous power supply, 100% exemption from stamp duty, extended working hrs for women, etc. UP has established leadership in many e-Governance initiatives. However, the transformation from being an IT laggard state to becoming a front runner in the race for various National and International awards for excellence in e-Governance applications has been made possible due to hard work, grit and determination of the State Government, IT Professionals involved in the projects and the people. UP is also one of the largest and the most populous state of the country. It requires huge efforts for implementing projects/applications across the state, and supporting them. Here, I would like to applaud the services of NIC in UP, for their enthusiastic and untiring efforts, and active role in transforming the State Government’s IT vision into reality. E-Governance projects in UP cover the entire spectrum of interfaces – G2G, G2C, G2B, G2E, G2S. However, the major achievements of the e-Governance initiatives of the state have been development of IT culture in government functioning, quicker and faster delivery of services to the people, change in mindset and attitude of government employees and transparency in government procedures. Some of the successful projects of the sate include – Lokvani – it is one of the pioneering initiatives of e-governance in the State. A recipient of the Golden Icon award at the 9th National Conference of e-Governance in the service delivery category, the project is a unique model of Citizen Grievance Redressal System. Treasury Computerization – one of the few government sector projects to have been certified by ISO, the treasury computerization in the state is one fine example of G2G and G2C interfaces. Benefiting more than six lakh pensioners of the state the software has been implemented in all 73 treasuries of the state, and provides information over IVRS and  web. Bhulekh – the land records computerization in UP started as an application especially for farmers but with concepts such as ‘Khatauni on Web’, ‘RoR Aapke Dwar’ the project has benefited government, banks, NGOs and all other stakeholders. Implemented in all the 305 tehsils of the state, the project has been instrumental in bridging the digital divide to a great extent. Vahan – The state has already computerized the major activities (Registration, Tax Collection, Permits, etc) of 19 RTO and ARTO offices. The project will be extended to all the RTOs of the state in the next couple of years. Telemedicine – UP was among the first in the country to have started the telemedicine project. Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences and IIT Kanpur have successfully implemented the project in rural areas of the state. There are numerous other projects like Property and Land Registry System, GIS based Planning Atlas, Online Counseling for UP Technical University, Results on Web, Nagar Nigam computerization, File Monitoring System and web based MPR, which are providing better services to the citizens and MIS for the administrators and policy makers. The IT roadmap for enhancing e-Governance penetration in rural areas is ready with projects that will give a boost to the IT infrastructure in the state like State Wide Area Network, State Data Centre, Centre for Excellence, etc, and with projects that will extend the fruits of ITES to people of far-flung and remote areas of the state like Community Service Centres, Citizen Information Kiosks, Jan Mitra Ekal Seva Kendra, etc. The journey does not end here… it has just begun to transform Uttar Pradesh into “Uttam Pradesh” as envisioned by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of UP. For further information, mail to psecit@up.nic.in