Akhilesh Yadav counters PM Narendra Modi’s smart cities with digital villages

September 10, 2014

LUCKNOW: The ruling SP may have been routed in the LS polls by the Narendra Modi juggernaut but CM Akhilesh Yadav is gearing up to counter the PM’s governance agenda with people-centric initiatives.

If Modi has been talking about ‘Smart Cities’, Yadav has quietly put together the framework for a massive ‘Digital Villages’ project, which aims to provide a host of services to the rural population, speedily and at their doorstep.

The Smart Villages project envisages linking up of 16,000 fully computerised Jan Suvidha Kendras (JSKs) in villages across the state to central data centres holding digitised government records so that any document or certificate needed by the villagers can be accessed and provided to them “over the counter” without any delay.

These documents relate to land records (khasra-khatauni), caste certificates, taxes, domicile, income certificates, death and birth certificates, etc. As part of this initiative, 53 such documents or certificates will be made available to villagers over the counter at the JSKs.

Most of the work that a common man has with the government relates to either land records or caste certificates and other such documents, said Naveen Kumar GS, special secretary, IT. “They have to travel to the district headquarter or the block office which involves much time, cost and endless delays which hurt poor villagers. Normally a person would have to travel for 15 days before getting the documents in his hands,” he said, adding, “We have initiated the JSKs with the aim of making these services available in the village itself. One JSK has been set up for every six villages in the state. So a villager can find a JSK a short walk away – 16,000 JSKs are already up and running.”

Source:Economic Times