Uttar Pradesh information technology department has planned to add more than a score of government to citizen services(G2C) in the existing bouquet of services being offered though common services centres(CSCs) in the state.

Exuding confidence on the availability of services, the officials told Governance Now that state would be completing the state service delivery gateway(SSDG) project in a month’s time and hence would then be able to offer bunch of 25-30 services from these CSCs. Under the SSDG project, a standard electronic form (eForm) is used for the two-way-end-to-end transaction between government and citizens.

The state has already completed digitization of record of rights (RoR) and is delivering RoR in an electronic format.  Officials informed that after the vertical integration between the Tehsil offices and the CSCs (at the village level), RoR would be added as another critical service to be offered in the rural areas.

Currently, more than a dozen of government services are being delivered though CSCs, though in selective zones, and which primarily includes issuance of certificates like birth and death, pension and ration cards. As per state IT officials, almost 25 lakh certificates have been issued so far through the CSCs.

Though the state had a target of setting up some 17,000 CSCs in the rural areas, it has managed to operationalise 7600 CSCs so far. The state has been divided in to six zones, namely, Moradabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Faizabad and Bareilli. Out of this, private partner CMS Computers is handling Moradabad and Kanpur zones. Another company, Srei Sahaj is looking after Lucknow and Varanasi.

The other three zones- Agra, Faizabad and Bareilli were initially being taken care by Comat Technologies and 3i Infotech. However, both the companies withdrew from the project later. The Department of IT has now chosen Vayam Technologies for these three zones.

Till now, CMS Computers has set up 2000 centres as against its target of 3382 centres, SREI Sahaj has operationalised 5000 out of its target of nearly 8,000 CSCs. 

Like in most of other states, the viability of the CSCs has been a major concern in Uttar Pradesh too. It is primarily because of the unavailability of electronic government to citizen services. In addition, availability of broadband connectivity at the CSC level is yet another major challenge in most part  of the state. 

While three districts – Sitapur, Rai Bareilli and Sultanpur where e-District project has been implemented, CSCs are offering set of G2C services, the situation in all other districts is not so well.