Trivandrum: Marking a historic transformation in governance, Chief Minister, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan today made ‘Total e-Governance Kerala’ declaration as God’s Own Country became the first fully e-governed state where entire spectrum of government services are digitized making their delivery prompt, transparent and inclusive, besides fast-tracking the journey towards a knowledge society and economy with total e-literacy.
In his address, the Chief Minister said ushering in complete e-Governance does not merely mean creating a network of government offices and citizens but leveraging technology for the state’s development and empowering people by bridging the digital divide. “By the term governance what the present government means is a total commitment to fulfil the promises it made to the people. The government and governance are reaching out to the people more and more. The service delivery has been made people-oriented and corruption-free and public utilities have become people-friendly. These transformative changes have been felt by people in the last seven years.”
Listing out a number of pioneering initiatives made by the government to usher in e-Governance, the CM said a single-window portal called e-Sevanam has been created to deliver as many as 900 services. The e-office system has already been implemented in government secretariat, district collectorates, commissionerates and directorates. The e-district project is another pro-people initiative. This will soon be extended to taluk-level offices. In panchayats, delivery of as many as 250 services has been made online.
Kerala also took a bold step by setting up the country’s first digital university and India’s first digital science park is getting ready at an estimated cost of Rs 1,500 crore. The local-level interventions to promote digital literacy are also on.
An exhibition featuring the digitisation of service delivery by various government departments is going on at Kanakakkunnu. Besides digitizing the delivery of government services to the people making them fast and transparent, total e-Governance ensures inclusion of all sections of the society, including the less-privileged and marginalized.
Chief Secretary, Dr V P Joy; and Secretary, Electronics & IT, Dr Rathan U Kelkar, were among those present.
