Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India today held the first State consultation workshops on “Citizen Centric e-Government”, along with Government of NCT of Delhi and NASSCOM. This consultative meet is the first of a series of 50 workshops to be organised in all State Capitals, UTs across India and some additional cities in larger states.

The Workshop was inaugurated by Smt. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi. Delivering the inaugural address, the Chief Minister said, “The Government is committed to provide better quality services to the people particularly who are uninitiated on the front of technology, through the help of information and communications technology (ICT) so that they can avail public services. e-Governance is a must for improving efficiency in the system.”

She said, “Customised IT solutions would empower the administrative system and enable the government machinery to respond quickly, which in turn will make governance more open and transparent.”

She highlighted that the work should start from metro cities to smaller cities and to the villages. Chief Minister emphasised that in government, implementation is the real challenge and for this purpose, systemic changes are a must for better service delivery and quicker response from the government. She said that IT enabled customised solutions can be helpful in creating such a conducive environment.

She opined, “Apart from delivering services from citizen service centres, we also need to inform citizens about their entitlements. SMS communication needs to be widely used to inform the citizens about their entitlements under the various schemes like social benefit and health services.”

Sh. P K Tripathi, Chief Secretary, Government of NCT of Delhi in his keynote address said that the computerisation of VAT, Mission Convergence of the Delhi Government, the e-Stamping initiative, e-SLA and 3D GIS projects has facilitated e delivery of many important citizen centric services and also reduced the cost involved in it. .

Sh. Shankar Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Govt of India, while speaking on the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) Vision, said that mobile technology and cloud computing should be explored for e-Governance. He highlighted that the strategy of the Government is to focus on services, service levels, business process re-engineering and change management.

Sh. Rajendra Kumar, Secretary, IT, Government of NCT of Delhi highlighted the journey of Delhi State e-Governance Journey by Delhi.

The workshop was organized to amplify the mission and message of the National e-Governance Plan: "Public Services Closer Home". As States and Union Territories are at various stages of rolling out public services on e-governance platforms, the NeGP Apex Committee had advised that DIT should organize regional meetings to discuss various region-specific challenges and issues that need to be addressed for e-Governance in the country. The string of workshops will cover all state Capitals, UTs and some important cities between now and July 2012.

Delhi is the first location that was identified for this series of workshops under the banner of "Citizen Centric e-Government". The workshop was attended by key stakeholders of the National e-Governance Plan drawn from Central and State Government, e-governance consultants, technology partners and implementing agencies.

The National e-Governance Plan, a key component of the Government's "inclusive growth" strategy, was approved by the Cabinet in May 2006. It aims to deliver public services to the common man in his locality, to make them both accessible and affordable.