Lack of funds, connectivity slowing CSC roll out

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Many of the Bharat Nirman Centers, earlier known as Common Service Centers (CSC), the main tool of national e-governance program, are slowly fading out due to the lack of fund and improper connectivity issue.

“We are seeing the impact of slowdown on Service Center Agency (SCA). They are unable to manage funds which have slowed the rate of CSC roll out,” said Chandra Prakash, Principal Secretary, Department of IT and Electronics, Uttar Pradesh at the 6th Assocham National Summit on E-Governance.

“Out of our target of 17,000 CSC roll out in a year, we have been able to roll out only 4,500 CSC approximately in one and half year. Central Government should provide some assistance to SCAs for faster roll out of CSCs,” he added.

He added that the government should, besides making an ambitious plan, go in depth of the problem and understand it. He also highlighted connectivity as another major issue in rolling out of CSC.

“BSNL has committed to connect all gram panchayats with broadband in a year's time but at present hardly 20 per cent of gram panchayats are connected to broadband,” said Prakash.

Central Government, with integrated support from state governments, had a plan to roll out one lakh CSC by mid-2008 but till august 2008 end only 50008 CSCs were rolled out. From these CSCs, the government has admitted that lack of funds and non-profitable business has led some of these centers to become non-operational.

Addressing the issue of fund, SR Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of India said, “The CSC which are now known as Bharat Nirman Centres (BNCs) are vital for growth and job creation in the country. Federal government alone spends Rs 150 thousand crores for rural India only on this BNCs to increase delivery of services on doorstep of citizens.”

He expressed need to enhance government-to-citizen services at BNCs to make them profitable for their survival.

Talking on effective use of technology, Sanjeev Gupta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture pointed out on various ways in which technology can be optimized to give desired output.

“Most of the application present under e-governance program are client server based application and less web based. Reach of services can be increased if they are more web-based. In Himachal Pradesh, e-governance had been optimized to a level that any file movement in agriculture department can be checked online,” he said

Gupta gave his suggestion on the way state government can develop their infrastructure by optimum utilization of resources.

On the fund side, he pointed out that Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund should just not be used for last mile wireline connectivity but it should also be used for wireless connectivity and state government should be given incentives for saving on a project.