Bengal bid to hasten online citizen service

Calcutta, Dec.19: Applications for various citizen-centric services such as ration card, income certificate and domicile certificate can be made online in Bengal from next year. 

However, the online facility will be available gradually, and the state government expects to make the services available in all its 19 districts within six months. 

The initiative is part of the Bengal government’s e-District project. 

“We have set a completion target of six months after which citizen-centric e-services will be available online.  We will start rolling out from January 1.  An amount of Rs 2.14 crore will be spent per district,” state IT minister Partha Chatterjee said. 

He was speaking at a session organised by Ficci and the Project Management Institute (PMI) here today. 

Bengal has already implemented two pilot projects in Bankura and Jalpaiguri. 

The online services to be offered include the issue of certificates, pension, social welfare, licences (arms and explosives) and ration cards.  The project is aimed at simplifying online applications, bringing transparency in governance and reducing the time taken to issue certificates. 

This is part of the mission mode project under the National e-Governance Plan of the IT department and will be funded by it.  The total cost is estimated at Rs 40.66 crore. 

The e-District project will focus on providing improved services, besides introducing and strengthening new and existing delivery channels at the district, sub-division and block levels. 

Ficci and the PMI today unveiled a report on the Bankura project with a road map for successful implementation. 

On the benefits of project management, PMI country director Raj Kalady said the lack of it had resulted in losses amounting to Rs 1,80,000 crore in 505 centrally-monitored projects.