e-Seva offered for rural areas

The chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, today launched e-Seva APOnline, a 89:11 joint venture of Tata Consultancy Services and the state government, that allows people to pay utility bills and avail of other services through Internet kiosks.

The government has proposed to establish around 6,000 rural kiosks by June 2004. Initially, over 17 services would be provided through the portal-based online service, which is accessible through multiple delivery channels "� homes, offices and rural service delivery points. The government will provide Rs 15 to Rs 20,000 subsidy for setting up rural kiosks depending on the viability of the unit concerned.

Naidu announced that the students up to junior college level would have to get caste, nativity and birth certificates only through APOnline kiosks from the next year onwards. Stating that the government wanted to set up at least one kiosk for each village in the near future, he called upon TCS to speed up the work on rural kiosks.

"In Singapore, around 1,700 services are available for the citizens of that country online. So we should also ensure that we constantly expand the number of services being made available on APOnline. In future, we do not want citizens to be required to come to the government offices. We want to take government services at the doorstep of the citizens," he said.

He also advised the banks to open APOnline counters at their branches. ICICI bank is the authorised banker working in partner ship with TCS for collection and remittance of bills from service delivery points.

Though people can freely access the Online service for payment their utility bills, TCS will charge Rs 15 for each certificate from the applicants. The utilities like Discom, BSNL and other departments will pay Rs 3.50 to TCS on each transaction made online.

Besides online payments for utilities, taxes, fees, deposits and stamp duties, citizens can access information on a wide range of subjects pertaining to different government departments. The service also facilitates online submission of forms including applications and requests for registrations, licences, permits, certificates and representations to different departments. Complaints and grievances can also be filed.

APOnline has databases of MPHS, Janmabhoomi, child information of education department and electoral rolls of election commission. The company is working on accepting debit cards in the near future, and is in negotiations with service providers for the same. One can track the status of complaints/ applications on the website "� www.aponline.gov.in "� through a unique user ID and password.

The chairman of APOnline Limited, S Mahalingam, said: "Being web-based eSeva APOnline facilitates scalability in minimum time combined with low cost of infrastructure."

eSevaAPOnline is planning to increase the number of services being offered for the citizens to 300 across various government departments and services in a phased manner.