The e-district project for Aizawl, the first in Mizoram, launched on Wednesday, has made it possible for one to access to 12 services right from his home.
“These 12 important services will also be accessible from Mizoram online service centres set up in 40 different locations in Aizawl besides two SDO offices and five rural development block offices in Aizawl district,” said information & communication technology minister Zodintluanga as he click-opened the project.
The e-district project, one of the major initiatives under the National E-Governance Plan and one of 32 projects under the state mission mode, will be extended to the remaining seven districts in Mizoram in the near future, the minister said.
The 12 services include income certificate, residential certificate, scheduled tribe/caste certificate, inner line permit, tax exemption certificate, housing loan clearance certificate, bakijai clearance certificate, land valuation certificate, land acquisition order, RTI services, public grievance redressal and disbursement of funds. Of the 14 states selected for the project, only Assam and Mizoram are from the Northeast. As Mizoram has been adjudged the best performer among the 14 states, the minister thanked all the departmental officials for their tireless efforts to make the project a success.
Executed from April 9, 2010, the e-district project was completed at the cost of `3.16 crore. It went live from March 4 last and 10,505 inner line permits, 7234 residential certificates, 9234 caste certificates 3736 and income certificates have already been issued. Mizoram is second state in India, next only to Uttar Pradesh to implement the e-district project, officials said. After going through all the tests, it has been certified by STGC. I&CT principal informatics officer Lalthlamuana, who gave a technical report, said the e-district project would save a lot of time and money that the people spend on availing different government services. Mizoram state e-governance society (MeGS) will maintain the e-district project. Deputy commissionerchaired district e-governance society (DeGS) has also been set up in all the districts.
Highlighting the young I&CT department’s projects to promote information technology in Mizoram, Zodintluang said, “Information centres have been set up in 136 locations in the state. Besides these, the North Eastern Council has allowed us to set up rural kiosks in 300 villages. Computer, scanner, printer and digital camera will be provided to these rural kiosks.” “Once the software technology park and state data centre are implemented, there will be a lot of jobs in the IT sector for the technosavvy Mizo youths,” he added. Aware of the huge potential that Mizo youths possess, Mizoram government has been leaving no stone unturned to develop IT sector in the remote state, he said.