The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : One lakh common service centres planned in villages

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

One lakh common service centres planned in villages

Special Correspondent

They will offer services such as collection of power bills "Through the CSEs, the rural population could access the services offered by both the State and Union Governments."

CHENNAI: The Centre will launch a scheme to establish one lakh common service centres (CSEs) in villages all over the country next year as part of the E-governance programme, Union Minister for Information Technology and Communications Dayanidhi Maran said on Sunday.

The CSEs will not only provide information to people in the villages but also services such as collection of water and power bills. They will issue birth and death certificates, passport applications and land records, Mr. Maran said.

He was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the wireless broadband system of Midas Communication Technologies Private Limited, a Chennai-based telecommunication technology firm.

Through the CSEs, the rural population could access the services offered by both the State and Central Governments. Using broadband connectivity they would be networked with State-level servers. These would be linked with the national network. The National Informatics Centre would be the technical advisor.

Mr. Maran said technological options such as corDECT, provided by Midas, would be useful in this regard.

Central clearance

He said a master plan has been prepared for the E-governance project. It would soon be cleared by the Union Cabinet. The project would be implemented through public-private partnership. So far, 21 States had expressed willingness to take part in the project.

3 States identified

Noting that the country did not have a chip manufacturing sector, Mr. Maran said Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had been identified for setting up semi-conductor manufacturing facilities to address the problem.

The estimated cost was $3 billion. Each State had to earmark 1,500 acres of land. "The State Governments should cooperate in creating this infrastructure in our country."

The Minister also declared open an advanced electromagnetic interference/conduction test laboratory on the company's premises at Neelankarai.

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