Business Line 26.03.2013
Kerala turns into one big e-district
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy formally announced the successful implementation of e-district programme in all 14 districts here on Tuesday.
“This makes Kerala the first State to have all districts covered under e-district, which takes services of Revenue Department online to citizens,” he said.
WELFARE TARGET
The Chief Minister made this announcement in the presence of Adoor Prakash, Minister for Revenue, at a function here.
The State is ‘keen to ensure benefits of e-governance reaching the masses,’ Chandy said. Projects such as e-district and Aadhaar should target welfare of the State and bring in benefits to the citizens.
The advantage of the programme is that a citizen could submit applications online anytime, even during holidays, for services such as getting revenue certificates.
All certificates issued through the e-district portal are authenticated with the digital signature of the concerned issuing officer.
CERTIFICATE LIST
The State Government issued an order endorsing the validity of digitally signed certificates and confirming its acceptance.
Twenty-three revenue certificates have been already made available online in the first phase. Services from the state departments of motor vehicles, local-self government etc are already available online.
These, along with increasingly more citizen-centric services from other departments, will be integrated into and made available through the e-district portal.
This project aims to target high volume services delivered at the district-level and to undertake backend computerisation to enable delivery of citizen services through Akshaya.
The guiding vision is making all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through Akshaya outlets and to ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services.
The Chief Minister said that the State Government would explore possibilities with the Centre of extending Aadhaar coverage to non-residents.
Speaking on the occasion, P. K. Kunhalikkutty, Minister for IT and Industries, said that ‘e-district’ marks one step ahead towards realising the dream of a digital society.
All outdated practices in the administration should be cleared, for better, efficient and effective administration that matches the challenges of modern era.
Adoor Prakash gave away the revenue certificates at the function.
Sajith Babu (Department of Revenue), K. P. Noufal (Kerala State IT Mission) and Jayakumar (National Informatics Centre) were feted for contributions to rollout of the e-district programme.
It was implemented in Kannur and Palakkad districts during the pilot phase along with 50 other districts across the country.
Department of IT and the Kerala State IT Mission, the nodal agency, took the programme later across the State.
