• Launches e-district project linking 1500 offices in state and 139 at Chandigarh with horizontal connectivity
• Introduces State Portal and State Service Delivery Gateway for G2C & G2G Services

NewZNew (Chandigarh) : The year 2014 is going to culminate in on a high note for Governance Reforms in Punjab as the state has shown a path to other states in this area by executing landmark initiatives to provide all citizen centric services to common masses on a single click at their doorsteps. Punjab has also become the first state in the country to successfully launch e-SARKAR to witness paperless governance.

Governance Reforms Department has become people-friendly under its minister in-charge and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal since he had envisioned to provide all 249 citizen centric services by setting up 1750 sewa kendras under one-roof through single window and a single click on computer. This dream envisaged by Mr. Badal has turned into reality with Punjab has linked its 1500 field offices and 139 offices at Chandigarh with horizontal connectivity.

Under e-district project as many as 157 suwidha kendras across the state were made fully operational providing more than 36 public services. The state has also initiated the process to bring 12089 villages under the national optical fibre network. The state has also interlinked all 147 departments with 143 branches to route common tasks online through IWDMS system. Besides, all 22 treasuries and 74 sub-treasuries have put on automated online processing through this system.

Divulging details in this regard an official spokesman said Punjab has become the first state to execute such landmark initiatives at ground level besides implementing state wide area network called as PAWAN project.  He said Punjab had also setup a unique state portal offering necessary information for public facilitation besides constitution of state service delivery gateway, e-offices, capacity building and unified citizen services delivery centres throughout the state.

Punjab has also become the first state having e-offices by launching this project from Mansa and as pilot district. The installation of state data centre hardware has been completed by December 15 while the Mansa district is expected to have all hardware networking before December 31. The spokesman said this prestigious project would be rolled out in remaining districts after its successful completion.

Giving details of proposed 2174 sewa kendras to be set up in rural as well as urban areas, spokesman informed that 1750 centres would be established in rural areas and 424 in urban areas to provide 249 public services effectively and efficiently. He said this system would provide public services connected with various departments in an integrated manner across the counter under one roof. He said governance reforms through Punjab State e-Governance Society was being established these centres on war level.

Stressing on government’s aim to end corruption, delays and public harassment by minimising the public contact with officials, he said that Sewa Kendras would facilitate better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information and more efficient government management. It would simplify internal operations and improve performance of departments while helping all sections of society to avail government services hassle free, at lower cost by saving time with maximum ease of use. Adding he said that strategic e-Governance would support and simplify governance for government, citizens and businesses.

By implementing this service delivery mechanism in the state, Punjab will become the first state in the country to provide government to citizen (G2C) centric services online. Punjab also leads in the country having status of e-Sarkar in implementing e-governance initiatives in provisioning of government to government (G2G) administrative services online. Under G2G project state has already implemented Integrated Workflow and Document Management System (IWDMS) and Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) in its all offices.

It is pertinent to mention here that Punjab has abolished seeking affidavits and attestation from officers, notaries etc. This system has witnessed a massive reduction in number of affidavits from 14.5 lakh in 2009-10 to 3.5 lakh in last year.