In order to digitally connect the Panchayats and strengthen the mode of public service delivery, the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha e-inaugurated 44 Digital Village Centres here at Civil Secretariat.
J&K Government is making digital interventions to bring the working of the PRI institutions close to the Government’s functioning and improving the quality of life in rural areas. The new initiative will enable the government to disseminate its programme and policies through a readily available system, observed the Lt Governor.
Each Panchayat office will be digitally integrated with higher offices to provide basic government services to rural population using digital technology, he added.
We are developing robust communication infrastructure so that every citizen has access to all government services and information when and where they need, while ensuring efficiency and transparency in the public delivery system, said the Lt Governor.
The Lt Governor directed the officials to ensure that the Government services must reach the grassroots level and their benefits shall be availed by the PRI members and the rural habitations.
Highlighting the key features of the Digital Village Centres, the Lt Governor stated the facility will also act as a resource centre for providing skill development training, holding information sharing and interactive sessions with experts and government officials.
It will also provide Wi-Fi access at commonplace in the village and facilitate access to regional medical centres and interactive teachings in schools.
Meanwhile, the Lt Governor also reviewed the functioning of the Information Technology department.
The Lt Governor directed the officials to bring all HoDs and Districts of J&K on the e-Office platform by August. He further called for developing a mechanism to put the working of all the government employees on online mode.
The Lt Governor also shared the suggestions received from the various corners during Awaam Ki Awaaz programme for making improvements on digital front and advised for including features to facilitate people with disabilities, besides continuous updation of government websites.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor inaugurated Phase-1 of JKSWAN under which 40 Block Headquarters of the project was handed over to the Government.
SWAN has been envisaged as the converged backbone network for data, voice, and video communications throughout UT upto Block level. It aimed at establishing a communication infrastructure to provide government departments in the UT with a mechanism to access the applications hosted by the data centre.
The Lt Governor also launched COVID Dashboard which will provide a detailed analysis of important factors like Case Trend, Vaccination, Comparative analysis, testing, district dashboards, district comparison etc.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor interacted with the DDC Chairpersons, Sarpanches, Block Officers connected through the virtual mode and congratulated them for the new digital initiatives benefiting their respective areas.
Sh. Simrandeep Singh, Secretary, IT Department informed the chair about the achievements and the future action plan of the department.
He informed that the SPARROW, an online Appraisal System for all JKAS Officers soon will be extended to Gazetted and non-gazetted employees, besides dedicated online services for Kashmiri Migrants will be initiated in the coming days.
While enquiring about the working of eOffice system, the chair was informed that 121 offices/departments are enabled on eOffice platform; 2 lakh file movements recorded till date, in 90 days and 86 in person and 50 online training sessions conducted.
Implemented in a record time of 45 days, the eOffice system was enabled and made functional in all Administrative departments and various sub-offices involved in darbar move.
Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Sh. Amit Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, JaKeGA, and other officers of the concerned department were present during the meeting.
