Buoyed by the exceptional success of the e-district project in Kannur and Palakkad districts, where it was launched on a pilot basis last December, the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) is all set to roll out the project in four more districts shortly.
“The idea is to roll-out the project in the remaining 12 districts in three phases split in to four districts each. As the first phase, the project will be introduced in Kasargod, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Kottayam districts by January-February next year,” K.P. Noufal, KSITM mission coordinator, told The Hindu on Saturday.
Initially, 41 services in five departments – revenue, Right to Information, local self-government, civil supplies, and election – will be covered in these four districts, he said.
So far, 2.17 lakh digital certificates have been issued collectively in Kannur and Palakkad, the highest out of all 640 districts where the e-district pilot project is underway.
e-district, a project conceived under the National e-Governance Plan, aims at electronic delivery of public services enabling citizens to avail of the services through citizen service centres or at home using personal internet connection.
The State government is also mulling over waiving its share of the fees collected from people at the time of filing applications under the e-district project through Akshaya centres. Under the pilot project, citizens have to pay Rs. 20 for filing applications, of which Rs. 10 goes to the Akshaya entrepreneur concerned while the remaining Rs. 10 is for the government. However, the government is now considering the possibility of waiving at least part of its share of fee.
Meanwhile, the KSITM is all set to incorporate online database verification in to the e-district project later this month. Once introduced the applicants would no longer require to scan four major documents - SSLC, driving license, ration card, and birth certificate - needed in more than 90 per cent of applications, as they can be verified online through data sharing. This will rule out any little possibility of forgery at the time of scanning, Mr. Noufal said.
For instance, where licence is to be verified, the applicant only need to enter the licence number as the entire data of the licence holder can be verified online by recalling the database with the motor vehicle department.
The online database verification coupled with the adoption of a system based on the unique e-district processing number is set to further simplify the filing of application. Under the system, a citizen who had already been issued a certificate under the e-district project would not have to duplicate the entire verification process all over again.
