As part of the e-governance initiatives, the Department of Publication, Ministry of Urban Development has launched e-Gazette with the help of NIC and NICSI which will maintain Gazette Notifications on a date-wise, month-wise, part-wise and subject-wise basis. These data belongs to the Central Government and the Government of NCT of Delhi. However, the printed version of the Gazette will continue to exist along with the e-version of the same.
Launching the e-Gazette the Union Minister for Urban Development Shri Jaipal Reddy stated that this is an initiative to empower the citizens and bona fide users. e-Gazette will enable people to have access and obtain the Gazette notifications issued by the Government immediately on its uploading on payment of the prescribed price of that notification. The e-Gazette will also help the media, social activists and many users for various other purposes like research, court cases and settlement of legal documents to a great extent, stated the Minister.
At present, there are some delays between the date of publication of Ordinary Gazette notifications and its availability for sale. The effort to operationalize e-Gazetting intends to reduce the time lag as well as to facilitate easy accessibility for the bona fide users all over the country without having to undergo tedious travel, etc.
Currently, the Department maintains all the notifications from 1962 onwards with a total number of gazette notifications of 61,71,000 approximately in the record room. Gazette Notifications prior to 1962 are available in National Archives.
The Government earns a revenue of Rs. 5 crores per year through the sale of gazette notifications. The introduction of e-Gazette will bring in more dividends ensuring easy accessibility to the purchaser without undergoing the rigours of reaching out to the sale counters.
