Shimla: For providing citizen services at the doorsteps of a largely rural population, the state government had identified 3366 locations for setting up Information Technology (IT) enabled Lok Mitra Kendras of which 2185 stand established.
For a state whose 90 percent population resides in villages, Panchayat was considered the basic unit of establishing these Lok Mitra Kendras, said a government spokesman.
Of the 3366 Panchayats in the state, these IT empowered kendara had been set up in 2185 Panchayats where government, private and social sector services had been made available to residents at their doorsteps, he added.
Enhancing the scope of e- governance, the government was increasing the number of services being provided at a single window at these Kendra’s.
Some of the services already introduced for the benefit of the citizen were IT services like Sugam, Hospital Management Information System (HMIS), Common Services Centres (CSCs), State Data Centre (SDC), AGRISNET, e-procurement, Content Service Provider(CSP) and e-Samadhan systems, said the spokesman.
In the first phase services such as voter registration, voter identity cards, electricity bill payment, telephone and mobile bills, police complaint registration and examination being conducted by Public Service Commission are being made available and in the second phase, information regarding passport, results of school education, registration in employment offices would be provided through these centers.
Other than these Lok Mitra Kendras, IT enabled Sugam centres had been set up at all tehsils, sub-tehsils, sub-divisions while district centres are being opened in municipal area to provide citizen services.
The Integrated Community Service Centre i-CoSC( SUGAM ) is one stop resource centre for all citizen related services and information.
The services being provided through these centres includes Vahan –Vehicle registration, driving license, bus booking and time table, voter registration, voter ID, e- Praman certificates: Caste, Domicile, Senior citizen, income, backward area, land record forms, REFNIC- Reference Monitoring of Files, hotel reservation and tourism information.
Updated and latest information regarding public distribution system, list of beneficiaries under different programmes, information regarding government grants given to PRIs and urban local bodies is made available through such centres. Access to community-based information and communication resources would certainly facilitate in empowering the rural masses, the official spokesman said.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
