The Jammu and Kasmir department of social welfare test launched e-deliverance of social welfare schemes on pilot basis in Ganderbal.

The project was launched by District Development Commissioner Ganderbal, Showkat Ahmed Mir and Social Welfare, Director, Bashir Ahmed Bhat in Wussan Kangan and Beehama Ganderbal respectively in presence of senior scientist CDAC, K Selva Kumar and District Social Welfare Officer, Qazi Irfan.

The project is funded by Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India and is part of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

Bashir Ahmad said the e-governance initiative will cover Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) and National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) being implemented by social welfare department in the first instance.

He said the software for the project has been developed by Bangalore based organization, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).

The project aims at mitigating the difficulties faced by the citizens in traveling long distances to apply for different services, by making the services available at the nearest common service center (Khidmat Centre) operating in the rural areas across the State. 24 such centres are in Ganderbal.

With the launch of the project, the applicants won’t need to visit any office for the submission of his application form. Citizens desiring to avail benefit under the two schemes need to approach the nearest Khidmat Centre and submit their application online through the Khidmat Centre.

The e-Receipt generated after the submission will be handed over to the applicant who can track the progress of the case from any Khidmat Centre, without any need to travel to the Tehsil headquarters.  Besides, it will also bring in further transparency in the Department as the status of the application can be monitored at various levels and there is no scope for any insertion or modification in the process, an official statement said.

The DDC stressed the need for holding awareness programmes in the district to make people aware about the functioning and merits of the system.