The Ministry of Panchayti Raj is all set to introduce e-governance at the panchayat level in a big way this year. e-governance project for panchayati raj institution (e-PRI) has been identified as one of the mission mode projects under the National e-governance plan.

The mission mode projects (MMP) proposes to bring essential government services at the door step of villagers by setting up common service centres (CSC). Under this MMP some 50,000 CSCs have already been rolled out and another 100,000 CSCs are expected to start functioning by the end of this year.

Services like disbursement of variety of certificates such as caste certificate, domicile certificate, revenue records, land registration will be provided at these CSCs.

The MMP also proposes to provide a whole range of IT-related services such as implementation and monitoring of schemes at the local level, budgeting and accounting in relation to panchayati raj and implementation and monitoring of central and state sector schemes,

Under e-PRI, the government is expected to provide computing facilities along with connectivity to all the 2.36 lakh panchayats at a tentative cost of Rs.4,500 crore over three years.

“Panchayats being the basic unit for planning and implementation of cenral/states programmes and  schemes, e-PRI would, in a way, be the umbrella MMP. The government would, therefore, give high priority to e-PRI under NeGP,” the ministry said in a press statement.

All 27 states have already rolled out this MMP and is at various stage in its implementation. Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Jharkhand are some of the states at the forefront at rolling out CSCs followed closely by Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal.