Khem Raj, Financial Advisor/Chief Accounts Officer, Information Technology Department, Civil Secretariat / Treasurer, Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency
Governance is a very unique concept for the J&K. As vast areas of the state are hilly, there exist problems regarding electricity, road connectivity, transport, banking, telephone, health and school education. The people have to cover long distance to avail these facilities. In many areas people have to cover long distances even to deposit telephone bill. For issuance of date of birth certificate, permanent residence certificates, SC/ST certificates, ration cards, payment of wages etc. they have to travel to the towns and cities.
Once we have proper e-Governance in the state, lot of problems, that the people residing in far-flung areas face, can be reduced. e-Governance can be of particular benefit to the poor people residing in the far-flung rural areas. It will save their time, money, energy and help them to improve their socio-economic conditions. The chances of corruption and exploitation would also reduce.
There is a great challenge before the IT department, but we are hopeful that all these difficulties will be overcome under the dynamic leadership of hon’ble Chief Minister, Janab Omar Abdullah, the Hon’ble IT Minister, Janab Firoz Ahmad Khan, and Sh. Bipul Pathak, Commissioner/Secretary to Government of J&K. All of them are well versed with IT knowledge and are working hard to implement the e-Governance projects in the state.
The State Data Centre has been setup in the state. The project has large scope to collect the data from various departments of the state and store it safely. Many departments are coming forward to get their connectivity to avail the delivery of information and data. The other projects like State Service Delivery Gateway, Common Service Centre, State Wide Area Network, e-District funded by the government of India, are also under implementation.
The Department of IT / JaKeGA are providing necessary financial and technical support as a facilitator to the agencies / vendors who are executing the e-Governance projects. The State e-Mission Team from central government is also working for consultancy in this regard.
After implementation and completion of the projects the doorstep services would be easily available to the citizen of the state and faith of the public in the government will increase. The successful implementation of e-governance projects depends upon the security scenario of the state if we do it well, it will generate the revenue and reduce the wastage of time, bring more transparency and accountability. The new era of development shall take place as difficulties of people shall be removed by efficient delivery of government services at their doorsteps.
The IT department has already imparted training to the middle level KAS officers through project management/e-Governance life cycle training under the capacity building programme. The training of more employees of the finance and revenue departments is under consideration. Such training will be of help for digitalisation of revenue records.
WiFi has been implemented in the civil secretariat Jammu and IMPA Jammu/Srinagar to increase the efficiency in office functioning. Department has also implemented a mobile based project monitoring application under BADP. e-PDS is also being implemented by the department.