Ration cards procurement, bill payments to get easier

The government has decided to outsource the services like payment of electricity bills and procurement of ration cards to private-run IT centres.
Ration cards procurement, bill payments to get easierAccording to top government officials, it has been decided that the services delivered by the different departments including the Social Welfare department, Power Development department and Public Health Engineering department would be outsourced.
State’s Information Technology department would help in the creation of infrastructure to set up the IT-enabled kiosks in the State and would also use the existing Khidmat centres for this purpose.
“We have decided that this year we will provide at least 25 services to the people at their doorsteps through the IT-enabled service centres,” Secretary, Information Technology department, Hirdesh Kumar said.
He said the government would charge a nominal fee from the people for payment of bills and other government services to make these IT-enabled centres self-sustaining.
Officials said this would help the State prevent corruption in public offices on delivery of different government-to-citizen services.
“This is the part of the government’s plan to improve e-governance in the State,” Kumar said.
The government would create infrastructure in the different departments to enable the services are delivered hassle free.
“There is a need to create a backend infrastructure in the departments to ensure better governance,” said a senior government official.
He said IT centres would be opened in rural as well as urban areas to get the official works done in a stipulated time period.
Kumar said as part of the plan, government would also lay the necessary infrastructure in rural areas to improve the delivery mechanism.
“While the previous government created new administrative units involving heavy expenses, delivery of services through IT-enabled centres is a better alternate model to improve on public governance,” a senior official in the IT department said.
He said Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed earlier in a review meeting had taken note of the fact that the delivery of services at the doorsteps of the people would enable better governance.
“CM has directed the services should be rolled out on fast-track basis,” the officials said.
They said the government in order to ensure use of information technology in different departments had also asked them to become proficient in the use of computers so that pace of work in the departments could be accelerated.

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