Union Minister of State for Communication and IT Sachin Pilot today said Rs 40 crore has been sanctioned for Common Service Centre (CSC) project in Jammu and Kashmir to support the state government in its e-governance initiative.

"We are committed to fully support e-governance initiatives of Jammu and Kashmir government and Rs 40 crore has been sanctioned for CSC project in the state," Pilot said after the launch of CSCs outreach programme from Ganderbal in Central Kashmir.

The Minister announced that an extension centre of National Institute of Electronics and IT would shortly be opened in Leh township of frontier Ladakh region.

"It will have the Capacity to train 50 students at a time. This will provide employment opportunities to youth of the area," he said.

Pilot also announced Rs 7 crore for computerisation of all colleges associated with Kashmir University Computerisation Project.

He said 16 educational institutions have been identified for connection to the National Knowledge Network (NKN) for shared learning and high quality collaborative research and e-learning.

He said of these, 10 have already been connected and the rest are in the process of connection.

Government Medical college, Srinagar Central University of Kashmir and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology would be integrated into NKN by end-November, he said.

Central University at Jammu, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology for Kashmir, and Defence Institute of High Altitude Research at Leh would be connected by December, he added.

Referring to the CSCs, the Union Minister said these are crucial part of National e-Governance project which is a major initiative for improving the quality of basic governance concerning common man.

He said one lakh CSCs across the country are providing various government services to the people including birth, death, domicile, caste, income certificates, MGNREGA payments, computer courses, financial services, online railway and airline ticket bookings.

He said the flagging of the exhibition van of National Out Reach Programme at Ganderbal rolled out the Phase-I of this prestigious programme in 11 states across the country and the campaign will cover 115 centres (CSCs) in five districts of Jammu and Kashmir.