Concept

E-Governance is the application of Information-Technology in the processes of Government functioning to ensure the highest standard of services to the citizens by providing instant access to selected Government information, and interfaces for communicating with the various government functionaries, wherever and whenever they need it. The Government of Himachal Pradesh is committed to provide the general public, especially living in distant rural areas of the State, with the benefits of  “Using Information Technology (IT) in Governance” at their doorstep.

Since the Internet has proved its potential as a powerful and effective means of disseminating information, it is here that the importance of having good government web-enabled interfaces comes into light. The Web-enabled Government-Citizen Interface, named LokMitra is one such step of the Himachal Pradesh State Government in that direction, in order to make people aware of government policies and programmes, and also providing an interface to interact with various government functionaries and solicit their active and direct contribution in the process of governance. The National Informatics Centre, Himachal Pradesh State Unit, also identified as the E-Governance Wing by the State Government in its Information Technology Policy-2001, is designing & developing necessary software and implementing the project.


Objectives

The project envisages various direct/indirect social as well as economic benefits to the rural masses:

  • Better dissemination of government information at the remotest corner, resulting in better awareness among rural masses about various Govt. Schemes and bringing in transparency.

  • Saving in time & cost of people visiting District headquarters time and again for getting information, lodging complaints & inquiring their status etc.

  • Reduction in response time by the concerned departments and increase in their accountability to people of the State.

  • Virtual Extension Counters for the Government, by way of using these Centres for getting the departmental Data entered and transmitted from time to time.

  • A platform for the people to interact with each other on areas of mutual interests e.g. matrimonial, sales/purchases etc.

  • Additional income opportunities from Citizen Information Centres by using them for General Training, Word Processing and Data Entry jobs, and extending Internet Access.

  • Employment generation by opening up of Citizen Information Centres throughout the State in the private sector.

  • Facilitating the growth of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the State.

Pilot Implementation

In order to visualize the concept, it was decided by the State Govt. to implement the project on a pilot basis in one of the districts on Intranet. Accordingly, the project was started on a pilot basis in district Hamirpur, funded by NABARD, as the first IT-Project to any State Govt. funded under RIDF scheme. The pilot project was formally launched by the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh on 8th May 2001.

A district-wide Intranet was created, by setting-up the Control Room (LokMitra Soochnalaya) in the Deputy Commissioner office at Hamirpur. The District Administration, in consultation with the Zila Parishad and Panchayats, identified 25 panchayats for setting up the Citizen Information Centres (LokMitra Soochna Kendra), by providing necessary hardware also.

The Hardware/Software installed at Soochanalaya (Control Room at the Deputy Commissioner office, Hamirpur) consists of two Pentium-III based Servers under WindowsNT, one 8-port Router, one 8-port Hub, four Client Computers with Printers, and eight Telephone Lines. The two Servers act as back-up to each other and function as Web Server, Email Server and Database Server. The four Client Computers are used by the departmental officials for updating the static and dynamic information content on the Servers, and answering the various grievances/queries of general public besides.


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