Power shortage in UP hits e-gov service centres

LUCKNOW, INDIA: The e-Governance service centres in Uttar Pradesh are concerned over the erratic power supply in the state.

To deal with this issue, the state government is procuring inverter cum UPS and tubular batteries to ensure unhindered power supply at the state headquarters (SHQ), district level headquarters (DHQs), tehsil level headquarters (THQs) and block level headquarters (BHQs), which will increase the efficiency of the State Wide Area Network (SWAN).

Currently, the e-governance centres are equipped with a power back up of two hours. Nearly, 885 PoPs (points where e-governance is available) would be equipped with a power back-up system and about 200 PoPs have already been provided with a long duration power back-up.

"Focus is on providing eight-hour power back-up," a Times of India report quoted Nagendra Singhal, state e-governance mission team, UP, as saying. More than Rs. 27 crore would be spent on batteries and inverters and capacity building. This amount was received from the Centre under the National e-Governance plan.

Due to power outages, the state has not been able to realise its objectives through e-governance. Power shortage makes CSCs charge more than the prescribed fee of Rs. 20. The cost of running generators is also charged from the customers as most of the e-governance service centers run on generators. Providing sufficient power back up to SWAN will ensure smooth functioning between the headquarters (which are connected vertically) and service delivery points (which are connected horizontally).

e-Governance was adopted in UP in 2009 under the NeGP. For the implementation of NeGP, the state got Rs. 176 crore in phases.