More than 4,000 common service centres are already operational in the State and another 7,500 centres will be in place during the next six months, said Minister of State for Energy Atanu Sabyasachi after signing of the MoUs.
Each gram panchayat will have at least one common service centre where electricity consumers will pay their bills without visiting the offices or collection centres of the distribution utilities. Even consumers who have not received their electricity bills for a particular month can pay their dues, the Minister said.
Information Technology Secretary PK Mohapatra said establishment of the common service centre was part of the national e-governance plan and the objective is to provide all government services to the people at their locality if not at their doorstep.
The common service delivery outlets will ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability and offer services at an affordable cost.
These centres will be the front-end service delivery points in rural areas for various government to citizen (G2C), business to citizen (B2C) and business to business (B2B) services, he added.
At least 43 per cent consumers do not get their electricity bills in time due to poor delivery system of the distribution companies.
The common service centres will solve the problem and the consumers do not have to pay extra cost for availing the service, he said adding that in the long run the facility will be made available through Internet.
Energy Secretary PK Jena said the new system will make the cumbersome bill collection process easier and the manpower engaged in bill collection can be utilised for other meaningful purposes.
It has been targeted to convert five to 10 per cent physical bill collection to online mode in the current financial year with ultimate target of 90 per cent online payment in two to three years, he said.
The distribution utilities signed the agreement with Orissa e-Governance Service Limited (OeSL), a special purpose vehicle of the Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) for setting up common service centres. Minister of State for Information Technology Ramesh Chandra Majhi was present.
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Quelle/Source: Express Buzz, 01.01.2010
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