AP aims to build 'Electronic Society' by year end

HYDERABAD: Moving along with its Web-based initiatives, the government of AP is aiming at facilitating an electronic society for this year. "This is one of our New Year resolutions and the chief minister believes that we can do it in this year. Each of the 22,000-odd gram Panchayats would have an Internet facility and every household an e-mail ID. This would eventually constitute an electronic society," said J. Satyanarayana, IT secretary, Andhra Pradesh.

The move is not a difficult proposition for the state as connecting the state through optical fibre network is going on at full pace throughout the state. "Nearly 30 per cent of the networking is complete and once Reliance completes its exercise of laying the optic fiber network, 80 per cent of the state is going to be covered. In addition to this we are also trying for getting greater bandwidth, so that information flow will be faster," he explained.

The government is also planning to encourage setting up of electronic kiosks with Internet connections at every gram panchayat under its self-employment schemes. "We are going to make use of the multi-purpose household survey data of 1.60 crore families available with the government. Each household would be given an email id so that every citizen could access information when and where required. The information will be added to the state AP portal which is going to be up very soon," he added.

Giving an example he said that an agriculturist can secure information with regards to the procurement of seeds without even bothering to go to the markets. In a similar fashion he can also download information from the state portal and can also interact with the government officials via e-mail.

In a phased manner e-seva facility provided by the government will be extended to all the 22,000 panchayats so that the people could pay their electricity bills, registration fee etc. through e-kiosk itself. The facility would also reduce the burden on the postal department.