After Sri Narendra Modi took over as PM, the National e-Governance Plan(NeGP), which was promulgated during May 2006, was transformed into DIP. The NeGP aimed at improving delivery of Government services to citizens and businesses with the following vision: “Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.” Despite the successful implementation of many e-Governance projects across the country, e-Governance as a whole has not been able to make the desired impact and fulfill all its objectives. It has been felt that a lot more thrust is required to ensure e-Governance in the country promote inclusive growth that covers electronic services, products, devices and job opportunities. And hence, the Digital India Programme is the new avtar of NeGP.
Initially in the NeGP, one CSC was to cover at least six villages thereby covering six lakhs villages by 100000 CSCs. But, in this initiative of DIP , there is a vision to establish 2,50,000 CSCs with broadband services by December 2016. Hence each CSC will cover 2-3 villages. The CSCs will be established in the premises of those GPs where broadband services will be provided. Each CSC will be operated by a computer literate Village Level Entrepreneur(VLE). The new model is envisaged as transaction based and service delivery based model, delivering a large bouquet of e-services through a single delivery platform, which would increase the sustainability of the CSCs. It is proposed to strengthen the CSC network by ensuring standardization of service availability and ensuring capacity building of all stakeholders involved. Among the few objectives of the revamped CSC two important ones are enablement and consolidation of online services under one technology platform, hence, making the service delivery at CSCs outlets accountable, transparent, efficient and traceable, with a technology-driven relationship between all stakeholders & increasing sustainability of VLEs by sharing maximum commission earned through delivery of e-services and encouraging women as VLEs.
Rayagada has 2556 revenue villages. As per the vision of DIP, Rayagada needs 1065 CSCs by the end of March 2017. According to the information of the officials of DeGS(District e-Governance Society), Odisha has been entrusted with a target of 10000 CSCs. Rayagada district has 171 gram panchayats and hence 342 CSCs are targeted: two CSCs per GP. The goal of the GOI envisaged in the DIP and statistics given at the ground seem to be contradictory.
In 2013, during a sensitization programme sponsored by BASIX which promoted CSCs and VLEs in Rayagada district there were only a few CSCs and till now there are around 100 CSCs in the entire district. And this is after ten years of promulgation of NeGP. At this speed this district will take several years to achieve the target. Juxtaposed to the initiatives taken by Govt, the district admn seems to be callous in updating the district portal. When the DIP policy boasts of transparency, data only upto 2012 have been uploaded. Even the first page of the portal keeps the mobile number of the collector blank. This has been a hindrance to empower the common men with required knowledge and information.
During a recent orientation programme for the VLEs of Rayagada district held at Lions’ Club, the VLEs came together to form a society called Rayagada District VLE Society and expressed their various concerns like un-interrupted broadband service to the CSCs, erratic power supply, real time feedback by the officials of DeGS, server down problems, absence of V-sat facilities by the Govt departments, etc. Especially the problems faced from the revenue department like retrieval of ROR with digital signature of Tehsildar, Income certificate, caste certificate, residence certificate, etc. The participants appreciated the effort of few nationalised banks in initiating V-Sat facilities in the district.
The orientation programme was facilitated by Sri Girija Padhi from DeGS, Bijaya Panigrahi from EDPM, Amaresh Nayak & P.Ganesh from e-Gov India Ltd from Bhubaneswar and the District NIC officer. Most of the sessions were interactive and dialogical which led to problem solving. There was also peer group experiential learning when the VLEs shared their experiences during the capacity building workshop.
The programme was moderated by Sri Surya Narayan Samanataray, President of Rayagada VLE Society and co-moderated by Society’s Secretary Sri Durlabha Kumar Dhoba, Vice-President Sri Subash Ch Pani, Treasurer Sri Naga Niniyaka, Gudari member Sri Jagannath Dora, Bissam Cuttack leader Sri Pdadeep Pondu, Rayagada leader Sri Biswajit Chhinchani, Padmapur leader Sri Rambabu Behera.
“The district administration needs to take a proactive step to boost the morale of the present VLEs and provide necessary facilities, incentives, commissions & CSC based monitoring and hand holding support at their doorstep. This will establish them as models and draw more and more entrepreneurs into this arena. Bringing more and more youths and women from the vulnerable groups of the society is the need of the hour. If necessary facilities are provided we will take the components of Digital India to a new height in Rayagada”, expressed Sri Samantaray, President of District VLE Society.