In a big step forward to provide the basic citizen centric services to the inhabitants of Punjab at their doorsteps in time-bound and hassle free manner, various flagship e-Governance projects like e-District, State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), Sewa Kendras, Human Resource Management System & e-Office would be fully operational in the whole of State. Chief Secretary Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal today issued directions to all the Deputy Commissioners to expedite the implementation of eDistrict, SSDG Project, Sewa Kendras and other e-Governance projects.As envisioned by Punjab CM Mr. Parkash Singh Badal and,Deputy CM Punjab Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal , Punjab is all set to become the first state in the country to deliver all the citizen centric services online by operationalizing the various e-Governance projects like eDistrict, SSDG, Sewa Kendras etc. Further the internal efficiency of the Government shall be improved with implementation of projects like e-Office and Human Resource Management System (HRMS). It was disclosed by Chief Secretary Punjab who was holding a high level meeting with Deputy Commissioners and the senior officers of the Department of Governance Reforms to review the progress of e-Governance projects of the State. Chief Secretary stressed on the effective implementationof e-Governance projects and completion of Sewa Kendras in stipulated time period to provide much needed impetus to the online service delivery mechanism. He further said that funds to the tune of Rs. 100 crore have already been released to all the Districts for the construction of Sewa Kendras and more funds will be released as per the demand by the Districts.
The spokesperson said that during the meeting, the Chief Secretary was apprised that the construction work is under progress in195 Sewa Kendras of Ludhiana, 152 Sewa Kendras of Amritsar, 141 Sewa Kendras of Jalandhar,144 Sewa Kendras of Gurdaspur,126 Sewa Kendras of Bathinda whereas construction work has already reached at advanced stage in other districts also.During this meeting, the various issues pertaining to Sewa Kendras like NOCs, BSNL connectivity etc were raised by Deputy Commissioners. The Chief Secretary directed Secretary, Governance Reforms to resolve these issues in next 3 days and submit a report.Issues of other e-Governance projects like training of Government officials, connectivity of field offices, data digitization were also discussed at length. The Chief Secretary asked the concerned officers to resolve these issues at the earliest to complete the projects on time.
Spokesperson said that under the Sewa Kendras project, 2174 Sewa Kendras would be set up in the State of Punjab. In urban areas, one such center would be planned within a radius of 1.5 to 2.5 square kilometres, based upon the population density. In rural areas, one service delivery center would be planned for every cluster of villages having a population between 8,000 and 10,000. With the implementation of e-District project, backend automation of more than 200 services will be completed across the State. Under the SSDG project, 8 pension related services are already available online on Punjab State Portal for citizens. 200 more services shall be added under SSDG & eDistrict project for which detailed project report has been prepared and sent to Government of India for final approval. Chief Secretary asked Secretary Governance Reforms to fix up meetings with senior functionaries of Government of India to expedite various approvals pending at Government of India level.
Chief Secretary also appreciated the effort made by the Deputy Commissioners to reduce the backend pendency of citizen service applications in Suwidha Centers for services under RTS act from 1, 09,157 in June 2014 to just 1071 as on 31.1.2015 which is merely 0.05% of the total applications received in the Suwidha centers of the State. Further the backend pendency of all the 149 Services notified under RTS act of the state was also less than 1%.Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Mr. R K Verma, Secretary Governance Reforms, Mr. Anurag Agarwal, MD PIDB& Secretary PWD, Mr. H S Kandhola, Director Governance Reforms, Ms. Sapna, Chief Architect and other officials of Department of Governance Reforms and construction agencies.