Citizens across the 28 states will be able to avail of all government services, including payment of utility bills and applying for a driving licence, through common Internet portals being developed as part of a Rs 2,000-crore state portal project, senior government officials told.
The government plans to develop portals for at least 10 states by October 2010, and the rest will follow. These state portals’ services will range from getting a birth or death registration certificate, to applications for pensions, to getting a domicile or residence certificate all online. The forms will be available electronically.
“We expect many states to go live within six months. It will reduce red-tapism and make delivery of services hasslefree ,” said a joint secretary-level official at the ministry of IT & communications.
“Citizen service centre kiosks in rural areas will help the technologically challenged submit these forms online,” the official added. The government plans to roll out almost 10,000 more CSC kiosks by December this year, taking the total to 90,000.
The portals will need Rs 50-Rs 60 crore each to be developed, said an egovernance business head of at one of the top Indian tech firms currently bidding for this business.
Already, five IT companies — Accenture, Infosys, HP, Wipro, and 3i Infotech — have been empanelled as agencies for implementation of the project at the state level. KPMG, Ernst & Young, PwC, IL&FS and UTITSL have been empanelled as the consulting firms. The states may pick any of these agencies for implementation of the project.
When the portals go live, citizens would be able to query the status of his/her application at any point. Response will also be conveyed through SMSs or email or even displayed on portals. Initially, it may be limited to notifications like a licence or permit being ready to be picked up. But with time, all emailed printouts of licences/tickets may also be made legally eligible.
The e-service delivery will have three main steps — selecting and filling the eform and submitting it electronically. She will also get a unique ID generated by the system, to follow the status via email or SMS. The portals would be available in local languages and English.
The Madhya Pradesh government has already gone live with its MPOnline portal, a joint venture with Tata Consultancy Services. The state has tied up with Bajaj Allianz, Tata AIG and LIC, to enable their customers to pay insurance premiums online. Citizens can also recharge their mobile prepaid accounts online for Airtel, Tata Docomo, Tata Indicom and BSNL phones. They can also book private tours of state national parks like Kanha and Bandhavgarh online. Victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy can apply for free medical facilities, and state incentives online.
IT WILL NOT WORK!!!
The TN Govt has announced that people can apply for Encumbrance Certificate through online. But, the brokers/staff/document writers have disabled the system, to earn extra money. Similarly, the IT department has announced that you can pay the Tax online, but, it is not working (page displays that contact system administrator!). This may be the hand work of tax-agents, like CAs/CSs. (IT department does not have email id!). As has been done in the Registrar of companies case (a PIL is on at Delhi High Court), wherein, advocates are not allowed to file online company registration petitions, unless the NIS is made more responsible for such lapses, NOTHING in this Country will improve. The bribe seekers will find-out ways to bury the whole thing-up.
bidders needs to be instructed to give email id of the officers of Govt to make it more interactive.
Emails IDs of our MPs and MLAs are even not valid that lends to failure of delivery of mails to the destined officer.