SHRI PRAMOD MAHAJAN TO CHAIR NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON E-GOVERNANCE
INITIATIVES TO BE HELD TOMORROW
FOCUS ON LAND RECORDS MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS AND CITIZEN SERVICES
CONFERENCE TO ROAD MAP E-GOVERNANCE
DELIVERABLES
STATE & UT IT & REVENUE SECRETARIES
TO ATTEND THE MEETING
In a major initiative
to facilitate and assist the speedy implementation of E-Governance
Services and projects across the country, the Department of Information
& Technology, has convened a one-day National Conference beginning
here tomorrow. To be chaired by Union Minister for Parliamentary
Affairs, Communications & Information Technology, Shri Pramod
Mahajan, the focus of the meeting would be to evolve a deliverable
road map for E-Governance initiatives on specific issues and subjects
across the country in an effort to bring about uniformity in implementation.
The meeting is also expected to unveil an Action Plan which will
not only focus on value added accessible e-governance services,
it will also focus on empowering the rural segments of the country
with e-governance tools in an effort to tackle the digital divide.
The meeting will provide an opportunity to states to use IT as
a leverage tool to deliver additional value to the citizens.
The objective of
the day-long meeting would be to bring together policy initiatives
in the E-Governance Agenda, to secure value added Government services
for citizens on matters affecting the common man. The theme adopted
for the National Conference is "Land Records Management Systems"
with a special focus on the initiative undertaken by the Government
of Karnataka in the "Bhoomi" Programme – online delivery of land
records in Karnataka. BHOOMI is a self-sustainable e-governance
project for the computerized delivery of 20 million rural land
records to 6.7 million farmers through 177 Government owned kiosks
in Karnataka. This has eliminated red tape and corruption in the
issue of land title records, and is fast becoming the backbone
for credible IT-enabled Government services for the rural population.
Rural Land Records have become the central conduits for delivering
better IT-enabled services to citizens because they contain multiple
data elements such as: ownership, tenancy, loans, nature of title,
irrigation details and crops grown. The programme has been successful
in creating a hassle free mechanism for change of land titles,
ensured that the solution is tamper proof and is easy to administer.
The focus of the
discussions would be on E-Governance projects across the country
in areas relating to land records, transport department, registration
department, computerization of treasuries, integrated citizen
service centres and the electronic delivery of citizen services
in municipalities and gram panchayats. One of the major topics
of discussion is to identify problems pertaining to the effective
implementation of E-Governance services. It is expected that the
discussions in this regard would focus on the gaps existing between
different States regarding issues pertaining to technology, management,
financing, project structuring and specialized manpower.
Discussions are also
likely to focus on the methods to be adopted for the simplification
of procedures and formats, project management, technology issues,
the initiatives to promote citizen centric projects in all States
and by and large creating a capable state infrastructure for efficient
value added citizen services. The meeting is being held in the
background of several states having implemented innovative and
pioneering projects in E-Governance. Some of the projects have
been outstanding success in terms of providing citizens fast and
easy accessible services.
