The Times of India          27.09.2010

Soon, eSeva to knock your doorsteps

HYDERABAD: eSeva will soon offer services at your doorstep with the help of hand-held machines. However, initially these services will be provided in localities where there are no eSeva centres.

Hundreds of colonies have come up around the city and some of them are isolated. At some places, citizens have to travel a couple of kilometres to pay their utility bills or submit passport or other applications as the 52 eSeva centres are located in the core city.

"The plan is to cover isolated localities, new colonies and apartments on `one day, one locality' basis," eSeva deputy director (urban eSeva) Yedukondalu Kumapati said. Officials are exploring ways to find out how many services could be offered through the hand-held devices. Once done, eSeva would train some people on these machines. Initially, officials are planning to provide services at the doorstep against cash payment, and no extra charges would be levied on customers.

eSeva centres have become so popular in the city in the past nine years that about 70,000 transactions of 1.3 lakh logged daily in the state occur in the city alone. So far, four crore transactions have been done through eSeva centres across the state since its inception in 2001.

Fifty two eSeva centres in the city offer about 160 services of 30 central and state government departments. Some departments are offering 80 per cent of their services to customers through eSeva. For instance, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) offers services like collection of property tax, trade licence fee and renewal, payment of building fee, issue of birth and death certificates and even corrections in electoral photo identification cards (Epic) through eSeva. Similarly, over 80 per cent of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board bills are being collected at eSeva centres. Customers of Central Power Distribution Company Limited (CPDCL) and RTA have also been paying their bills through eSeva centres. PAN card applications and passport applications are also accepted at eSeva centres.

Last month, bill payment through mobiles was launched whereby mobile users having GPRS facility can pay their utility bills through their credit or debit cards. .

"There is a great demand for eSeva services. Every day one department or the other is asking us to provide services through eSeva as it is useful for them in terms of manpower deployment and easy access to their customers," Yedukondalu added.