Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab today declared that Punjab would be the first state in the country to have 147 citizen services under RTS to be provided online and citizen could access the delivery of services anywhere, anytime. He was here to launch single point access Punjab State Portal to provide all government services and information related to various departments by a single click on www.punjab.gov.in. Launching the State Portal and State Service Delivery Gateway project here under e-Governance Plan, Mr. Badal said this project will fulfill the vision of providing easy and convenient services to the citizens through remote access from home or Gram Suwidha Kendras. He said three key components of the State Portal were - State Service Delivery Gateway, Electronic Forms (“e-forms”), Application and Computing Infrastructure.
Giving information about the Portal, Mr. Badal said the portal would provide 32 high volume citizen services in the first phase and all 147 citizen services to be integrated with the portal within 9 months. He said the key services would be Pensions including old age, widow, handicap, dependent children etc, Schemes namely National Family Benefit Scheme, Shagun Schemes, Scholarships including post-matric to SC/BC students, Term loan to SC/BC besides having major services of Birth/Death/caste/residence certificates and Marriage Registration. He said citizen can also avail the services related to ration card and Right to Information.
Reiterating his vision to minimize the interaction of common masses with public servants by educating people about Right to Service Act, Mr. Badal said there was only one solution to wipe out corruption that was to reduce the interaction between general public and public offices by providing all citizen services through online system. He said with the starting of this unique portal the citizen can get their required government documents and information just in a single click on computer. He said this portal will also include availability of online ‘e-repository’ of Government information and services besides having direct access to all government services with receiving SMS alerts to know the status of their application. Mr. Badal informed the delivery of service required by citizens would be provided online vis-à-vis by post at their doorsteps to promote ‘e-interaction’ between citizens and government. He said that portal would also have a provision of integration with payment gateway to facilitate online payments by the citizens. He said that project is being launched at State, District, Tehsil and Village level by providing computing infrastructure, internet connectivity to more than 600 government offices. Prominent amongst those present on the occasion Mr. C. Roul, Principal Secretary Governance Reforms, Mr. TPS Sidhu, Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Special Principal Secretary, Mr. Jangveer Singh, Media Advisor to Deputy CM and Mrs. Amanjot Kaur Ramoowalia, Chairperson District Planning Committee.