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In a big digital push for the villages of Gujarat, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday announced the Digital Seva Setu programme connecting a total of 10,000 village panchayats with high-speed Internet connectivity.
The first phase of Digital Seva Setu will start from October 8, 2020 covering 2,000 Village Panchayats. It will provide 20 services including issuance of duplicate ration card, income certificate, senior citizen certificate, caste certificate among others, a statement said. The citizens will be able to access the service and take the benefit of the programme by paying a fee of ₹20.
In a path-breaking initiative, under the provisions of Article-3 of Oaths Act-1969, the government will provide powers of affidavit to the Talati-cum-secretary at the Village Panchayat level so that people in rural areas do not have to visit the notary offices in towns and cities. The Chief Minister has also decided to use E-sign rather than physical signatures.
Under this, the concerned person can avail the necessary documents at the click of a button in his/her mobile phone and the documents will be made available in DigiLocker.
BharatNet project
The programme has been initiated under the BharatNet Project- an initiative to connect the Village Panchayats through fibre network. Under the programme, the villages of the State will be connected with a 100-MBPS optical fibre network, thereby giving high-speed data connectivity at the grassroot level.
The State government aims to cover another 8,000 village panchayats by December, 2020.
Notably, the Digital Seva Setu is an extended version of State government’s Seva Setu programme launched in 2016. Under the earlier edition of Seva Setu, a cluster of 8-10 villages was created and a team of officers administered the Seva Setu camps. During the camp, people were provided on-the-spot solutions to their queries and administrative requirements.
“More than 12,800 programmes were successfully completed and more than two crore people have reaped benefits of this initiative at their Doorstep. The Digital Seva Setu is also a step towards fulfilling the vision and mission of Digital India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The aim is to make every village a Mini Sachivalay ,” the statement said.
An integrated and dedicated platform will be made in the future to encompass all the villages of Gujarat under Digital Seva Setu.
Digital push
According to the State government, the digital initiative will reduce human interface and propel a paperless working system under the mission of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.’ It will also pave way for transforming more than 18,000 villages of Gujarat into Modern and Global villages.
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