Promoting Common Service Centres on the streets

GANGTOK, 18 March: A street play, aimed at informing the people about Common Service Centres and promoting the various services that the people can avail at these centres, was performed at MG Marg yesterday. CSCs, opened at the village level, seek to provide high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services. The street play, scripted to generate awareness about this IT-enabled service, was organized by Outloud Enterprises which has been hired by the Information Technology Department to conduct awareness/ sensitization programmes on CSCs all over the state.
A highlight of the CSCs is that it will offer web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills. The idea behind CSCs is to develop a platform that can enable Government, private and social sector organizations to integrate their social and commercial goals for the benefit of rural populations in the remotest corners of the state through a combination of IT as well as non-IT services.
The street-play, a press release informs, was followed by distribution of pamphlets explaining the objectives behind the setting up of CSCs and details of the services offered by these CSCs which include Internet, Computer Typing, Printing, Train/Air Tickets, DTH/Mobile recharging etc.The awareness programme will travel to all sub-divisional towns on haat days. At present, there are 45 CSCs running in the state.
The release highlights that although people may have heard of such CSCs in their localities, they are mostly unaware of the services available there like Air/ Train ticketing, DTH/ Mobile recharging, and the latest awareness drive is expected to generate wider awareness and through it, greater patronage.
The Government of India has also recently approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with the vision of providing all government services in an integrated manner at the citizen’s doorsteps at an affordable cost. NeGP is aimed at improving the quality, accessibility and effectiveness of government services to citizens and businesses with the help of ICT. It is structured on the philosophy of a centralized initiative with decentralized implementation.
One of the main infrastructure pillar that has been identified for successful implementation of NeGP is Common Services Centres (CSC). At present, citizens, especially those living in remote rural areas, have to travel long distances to avail a service through a government department or its local offices. This is time-consuming and costly affairs for a common man to access citizen services. To overcome this problem, as a part of the National e-Governance Plan vision, one computer and internet enabled Common Service Centre (CSC) is envisaged to set up for every six villages so that villagers can easily avail these services.