UP govt launches 33 websites

With a view to utilising e-governance for better governance in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Secretary PK Mishra inaugurated 33 websites of different departments on Saturday in Lucknow.

"The main objective of the websites is to bring transparency, perfection and responsive administration and to end corruption and bring improvement in providing better services to the citizen," said Mishra.

He further said the websites of different departments would be linked with important information like health-related services, land records, property tax, various information pertaining to panchayats and development works.

"Since the Secretariat is the hub of governance, its 384 sections would soon have the culture of e-governance. Secretariat employees will be provided with the necessary training, the module of which has already been prepared," said VN Garg, principal secretary (information technology).

Moreover, National Informatics Centre (NIC) is also working on Uttar Pradesh State Wide Area Network (UPSWAN) project to set up state-wide backbone connecting 900 nodes covering all the blocks, tehsils and districts of the state within a year.

Also, e-governance facilities would be available in 17,909 common service centres (CSC) to be established in the villages in the next three years.

Garg said 50,000 unemployed youths would be getting employment opportunity through the establishment of CSCs. The CSC scheme will be implemented with the help of the Centre.

Under this scheme, one village among every six village will be selected for establishment CSC. Through CSCs information and forms related to animal husbandry, social development, agriculture, trade, tourism, transport and employment will be available.

To provide e-governance at the district level, a pilot project covering six districts, Sitapur, Sultanpur, Gorakhpur, Rae Bareily, Ghaziabad and Noida, has been launched.

In addition to this, the state has proposed to start e-procurement, computerised tendering system, for government purchase from November this year.

The six departments identified for implementation of e-procurement are public works, irrigation, medical health, II and electronics, industries, and printing and stationery.

Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to have implemented e-scholarship programme inaugurated on August 30, benefiting more than 20 million students.

Under this scheme, the scholarship amount is directly transferred to their bank accounts.