PUNJAB all set for total computerisation of district offices by December this year-Sukhbir

Chandigarh, July 26, 2013: The Punjab is all set to computerise all district offices by the end of this year after successful results of pilot project  e-district projects in Kapurthala and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. The project would entail total backend computerisation of District and Tehsil level offices to ensure electronic delivery of high volume 47 citizen centric services.

Reviewing the implementation of e-district plan in a meeting of Governance Reforms Department held here, the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today issued instructions to link all services to Central Data Server for proper integration of all services.

Expressing satisfaction over effective results shown in two districts, Badal said that this e-district project has covered total 47 high-volume citizen services that were earlier delivered manually through SUWIDHA Center (Urban Front end service delivery channels). He said that compared to the earlier manual system, the e-District Project has ensured, faster, simplified, cost effective, timely, and convenient over the counter delivery of services.

Issuing directions for online application of 47 services, Badal said that by November this year every citizen in the state should be able to apply these services from their homes. The services that citizens can avail under e-district project included 4 Services related to Ration Card, 4 Services related to Birth/Death registration, 5 Services related to Pensions, 15 Services related to Arms Licenses, 4 Services related to Marriage, Certificates like Residence, Caste, Rural Area etc, Revenue Department services like Revenue Courts, Government Dues and Recoveries etc.

Stressing upon the need for total transparent system, Badal asked Secretary Governance Reforms to incorporate SMS services as a part of software, under which every applicant on submission of application would get an SMS indicating the date of his/her service would be delivered. If the service of the citizen was ready before the said date, the SMS should inform the applicant about that. He said that  Aadhaar numbers of citizens availing these services should be taken while application submission which would help in building effective beneficiary authentication mechanism in future.

Reviewing the success of Pilot Project in two districts, it was informed in the meeting that Punjab is the first state to implement highest number of 47 services among all the States which were selected to implement this project in the Pilot phase. It was informed that more than 75000 citizen service requests have been processed electronically and in order to deliver these services efficiently,  more than 200 offices across the 2 districts have been connected with Punjab Wide Area Network. More than 300 Digital signatures have been issued to designated officials for approval of certificates/Outputs

Stressing on the transparency in the working of administration and empowering the citizens, Badal said that the citizens would be the ultimate beneficiaries of the e-District project. He said that he got the feedback from the people that most of the citizens felt that the computerized system under e-District project has been substantially beneficial as the application process to issue certificates, Ration Cards, Sanctioning Pensions and other services has become hassle free.

Reiterating his commitment to provide hassle free services to the citizens, Badal said that Government Process Re-engineering in services like Pensions, Health etc which has reduced the number of trips of citizen to Government Offices. He said that  with the building of Digital repositories of Birth/Death Certificates in eDistrict, multiple copies of Birth/Death certificates can be given Across the Counters to citizens in less than 2 minutes.

C.  Roul, Secretary Governance Reforms, giving the details of the project said that the new system has raised the level of transparency and quality of governance and Service delivery has improved. He said that all the output certificates are Digitally Signed by competent Authorities and the new automated system under e-District project has improved the status-tracking system from the District administration end. Citizens also can track online the progress of their applications.

Appreciating the effective monitoring of delivery of citizen services Badal said that MIS reports to the last level of service delivery should be made available. i.e. the pendency of applications could be tracked till last level of service delivery like Patwaris (Revenue Dept), CDPO (Pensions), Food Inspectors ( Ration Card Services) etc. MIS reports related to Compliance to Right to Service Act Punjab should also be developed in E-District Project. More than 1500 District and Block level offices will be connected with Punjab Wide Area Network (PAWAN) under this project. Funds to the tune of Rs. 53.34 Crore have already been approved for implementation of eDistrict project in remaining 20 Districts of Punjab.