The Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is gearing up for a State-wide roll out of e-district Kerala, a mission mode project under the national e-governance plan.
District e-governance committees have been formed in all the 14 districts. As many as 10-lakh digital certificates have been issued to applicants in less than two years since the launch of the pilot project in Kannur and Palakkad districts.
The KSITM is the implementation agency for the project under which a citizen can submit applications online anytime, even on holidays, for the permissible services. All certificates are issued through the e-district portal, which includes the digital signature of the issuing officer concerned. The State had issued a Government Order endorsing the validity of digitally signed certificates and confirming its acceptance.
23 certificates
As many as 23 Revenue certificates have been already made available online in the first phase. Nine other departments are preparing to roll out 43 citizen-centric services through the e-district portal, according to an official press note issued by the KSITM.
The pilot e-district project was launched in June 2008 with a vision of making all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through Akshaya outlets and to ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services.
The e-district application has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). To enable service delivery through e-district, the government had framed and notified The Kerala Information Technology (Electronic Delivery of Services) Rules, 2010, under the Central IT Act, 2000.
Verification system
The proposed online database verification system is designed to be of help to citizens. Once it is launched, the public will only have to provide the serial number of the certificate, at the time of filling applications in later stages and for any other purpose. The village officer can verify each application with the concerned department’s database and issue the certificates immediately.
All village offices and taluk offices have been connected through a web-enabled system. The State Data Centre developed and maintained by the KSITM stores all relevant details and digital documents related to each application. The system is based on a Free and Open Source software platform.
The KSITM has established a portal that will enable designated officers to track and monitor the flow of applications in each e-District. A separate web portal is also envisaged to monitor the hardware and other related issues.
