E-governance plan delayed again,Aug 1 is new deadline

There are other issues as well. Sources said the government has belatedly realised that officials require training for the success of the project. This will begin on July 9.

Besides,the Revenue Department has not even started work on the project despite the fact that some of the important services,like issuance of residence certificate,caste certificate,income certificate and details of land records,have to be provided by it.

At a review,taken by Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani recently,most of the departments expressed their inability to complete the tasks before July 1,citing ongoing urban local body elections and non-availability of officers. So the deadline was moved to August 1,but officials says even this deadline looks unrealistic.

The 26 services which are to be made available through common service centres across the state are to be provided by Food and Civil Supplies,Labour,Urban Development,Handicapped Welfare,Social Welfare,Panchayati Raj,Revenue and Women and Child Development Departments.

It started with a pilot project which was launched in six districts,namely Sitapur,Sultanpur,Gorakhpur,NOIDA,Rae Bareli and Ghaziabad,to provide certain select services at common service centres in 2006.

The idea was to make government services available to the people near their doorstep by making use of information technology and also bring transparency in the working of government departments. Uttar Pradesh Information Technology and Electronics Department was made the nodal department for implementation of the project.

On the basis of the results of the pilot project,it was decided to replicate it in all districts from 2009 by setting up 17,909 common services centres or Jan Suvidha Kendras. However,only 8,600 have been set up so far. For implementation of the scheme,the state was divided into seven zones,namely Moradabad,Varanasi,Faizabad,Lucknow,Bareilly,Agra and Kanpur,and private companies were selected to set up common service centres at the village level.

CMS Computers Ltd was to do work in Moradabad and Kanpur divisions,SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd in Lucknow and Varanasi divisions,Comat Technologies Private Ltd in Bareilly and Faizabad division,and 3i Infotech Ltd in Agra division.

Sources said the agencies did not increase their network because they were not given government services as promised. As a result,even some of the already established common service centres became non-operational.