By Tricitynews Reporter
Chandigarh
30th May:- E-governance has become the governing mantra of our fast-developing
nation. Digital India is a flagship programme of the Central government, with a
clear focus on delivering citizen-centric services with the aid of Information
and Communication Technology. Speaking on the occasion of digitisation of the
Supreme Court of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that E-governance is
easy, effective and economical. It is also environment friendly. And paperless
offices will benefit the environment.
The
e-governance project had a significant positive impact on the country. The
e-filing and e-processing of documents have replaced manual filing and handling
of paper documents, making government offices paperless. This initiative has
ultimately reduced the physical interface of the business community with the
departmental officers and provides a corruption-free environment with improved
taxpayer services.
Punjab,
along with many other states, has been at the forefront of this drive to start
and extend e-governance initiatives for the welfare of the citizens. Certainly,
the decision of the Punjab government last year to set up Sewa Kendras in
cities and villages across the state to deliver services expeditiously is a
laudable one.
There
are 2,147 kendras across Punjab which
provide about 67
services, including applying for various documents at one centre with a minimal
fee. The kendras provide services related to birth and death certificates, arms
licence, power supply bill, water and sewerage bill, tenant verification among
many others defined under the Punjab Right to Services Act, 2011. They
serve as a one-stop centre for citizens to avail a range of government
services. There is a Sewa Kendra every
2.5 to three kilometres in urban and rural areas to facilitate citizens who
were earlier required to travel 20-25 kilometres and stand in long queues for
availing basic services.
The Sewa Kendras can be
transformative if allowed to continue. E-governance is national imperative;
such a citizen-centric project should be the vision of current government
involving local urban bodies in the state to mitigate the problems of rural
& urban population. It would be interesting to see if the present
government raises the bar above politics or choose to ignore the “Citizens
FIRST agenda” or continue the hoary tradition of dumping projects in the name
of politics.
To see worthy public projects through
the prism of political partisanship is short-sighted. Sewa kendras employ about
5,000 persons. With
e-governance, the corruption and the proportion of paying bribes have reduced
from drastically. Such is the buzz created by its
success that several states like Kerala, Haryana, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh
and Maharashtra have shown
interest to replicate the e-governance model. It
also sends out a negative perception to other companies interested in investing
in Punjab while it is possible there could be some lag in the functioning of
the Sewa Kendras, surely that doesn’t necessarily have to mean rolling up the
project altogether. Rather, the government should encourage improving the
working, so that the process of empowering citizens is not disrupted. That
would be an anomaly in the making of Digital India.
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