The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Government pilots e-governance portal

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Wednesday, Apr 28, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Government pilots e-governance portal

Special Correspondent

For extending social welfare schemes to beneficiaries in a transparent manner

It is being implemented through Common Service Centres
The software application will currently be confined to six schemes

CHENNAI: The government on Tuesday piloted an e-governance portal for extending various social welfare schemes to beneficiaries in a quicker and transparent manner.

The initiative of the Tamil Nadu eGovernance Agency (TNeGA) involving the Social Welfare Department is being implemented through Common Service Centres (CSCs).

The software application will currently be confined to six schemes of the department and the online processing facility in the initial phase will be available in four districts – Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Vellore and Tiruvannamalai. An estimated 1,045 CSCs will assist citizens in submitting their applications online.

“We expect to roll out the facility in all districts in due course and provide the full complement of citizen services entirely online,” IT Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna said.

She pointed out that the ratio of CSCs per population was much higher in the State compared to the national targets. While nationally, the stipulation was to have one CSC for every six panchayats, there was one CSC for every three panchayats in the State, she said. The social welfare schemes currently on the portal include the Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Ninaivu Marriage Assistance Scheme, E.V.R. Maniammaiyar Ninaivu Poor Widow's Daughter's Marriage Assistance Scheme, Annai Theresa Ninaivu Orphan Girls Marriage Assistance Scheme, Dr. Dharmambal Ammaiyar Ninaivu Widow Remarriage Scheme and Anjugam Ammaiyar Ninaivu Intercaste Marriage Assistance Scheme.

Citizens can approach CSCs, where trained persons would help them fill in the online pro forma. Each applicant would be assigned a unique citizen account number (CAN) while applying the first time. The filled forms are accessed immediately at the respective Block Development Offices, from where they are forwarded to the District Social Welfare Officer after field verification of the applicant's particulars.

Social Welfare Minister Geetha Jeevan said this was the first time that social welfare schemes were being put out on an integrated online platform.

IT Secretary P.W.C. Davidar said the CAN comes in handy while accessing civic services in future and can also be used to check the status of an application online. While initially, the schemes can be accessed only through CSC kiosks they could be put on the public Internet domain at a later stage.

The concept is to do the entire facilitation of a request online so that a citizen does not need to see a government official, said Santhosh Babu, CEO of TNeGA. When the portal goes State-wide as expected in about six months it is proposed to provide the entire complement of 40 citizen services online, he said.

The National Informatics Centre and Wipro are partners in the initiative.

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