Basic government services will now be rolled out in villages through CSC kiosks. Certificates related to domicile, nationality, caste, marriage, income, employment, birth, death and disability will be available through these centres.
Besides, the kiosks will act as hubs for filing RTI applications, getting a driver's licence and marriage services. States are mandated to roll out all these services by July 2012. The CSC scheme, launched when Dayanidhi Maran was the IT minister in 2005, is making losses.
Almost 10% of the 100,000 kiosks have closed down due to lack of business. "The government claims to have rolled out about 95,000 kiosks. But the question is how many are functional," said an e-governance expert. Government officials couldn't be reached. The government has spent several hundred crores on the scheme.
"In one instance, the agency running these kiosks in Delhi tried to pull out," said Delhi's IT secretary Savitur Prasad. The agency was forced to stay as pulling out would have attracted penalties. The e-district programme pilot projects have already been started across 41 districts. Bihar, Bengal, Mizoram, Orissa, Haryana and Kerala have also launched e-Services.
About 640 districts across India will receive IT and networks worth Rs 1.2 crore. The cost of the e-district project would be shared between the Centre and states in the ratio of 75:25. "The e-district programme may be beneficial for the CSC kiosk owners. It remains to be seen how soon the government launches these services," said PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Neel Ratan.
The kiosks will become a onestop shop for internet access, issuance of passports and rail tickets for a villager. The CSCs are being rolled out in about 6 lakh villages. About 1 lakh CSCs have already been rolled out, and about 150,000 will be rolled out in the next two years. Some centres closed due to the non-availability of services and content last year.
Many agencies had bid low and are now finding it difficult to sustain the operations without profits. The e-district project would be implemented in two phases. In phase 1, such districts would be covered where at least 70% CSCs are operational. The rest would be covered in the second phase.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Harsimran Julka
Quelle/Source: The Economic Times, 09.06.2011
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