e-governance vital for progress: Pilot

Dear Comrades,

Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot Friday, launched the Nagaland State Data Centre and also handed the first receipt of Unique Identification Number (UIN) or Aadhaar enrolment in North-East Circle.

The minister handed over the first receipt of enrolment of Aadhaar or Unique Identification Number in the North East Circle to Vikehiel Khazo. Pilot said that the launch of Aadhaar scheme in Nagaland would help the government to ensure improved service delivery and more transparent, efficient and effective governance.

Lauding the state government’s effort to launch the State Data Centre which was established at a cost of Rs. 31 crores, Sachin Pilot informed that the State Data Centre would enable consolidation of services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of different kinds of services.

He said the Data Centre, will improve service delivery with transparency and efficiency He said in line with the national e-governance, a special feature which became functional after launch of the Centre was online file-tracking system.

Sachin Pilot said that IT was one area where the economy of the North East can be moved forward despite the region’s inherent difficult terrain that made communication inconvenient.

He urged the government to create infrastructure of education and centre of excellence in IT and to train skills of educated youth and make them employable. He assured that it was the wish of the Central Government to put all efforts in making North East realize a better future and lead quality of life.

The department of Posts has signed an MoU with Unique Identification Authority of India to function as registrar for enrolment of citizens of India. The services will be rolled out in post offices in all eleven districts of the state.

Minister for Planning and Coordination, Animal Husbandry, T.R. Zeliang appealed to Sachin Pilot to give priority to Nagaland while providing scheme to youths as part of National Development Policy which is to provide scheme to 500 million youths by 2020. T.R. Zeliang said that the state government envisaged youths to avail opportunity created by the central government.

The inauguration programme was attended by cabinet ministers, senior bureaucrats and officials of the state government.

Sachin inaugurates RIELIT: Inaugurating the newly constructed building of Regional Institute of e-Learning and Information Technology (RIELIT) at Meriema, near here, MoS for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said that the central government would make efforts to usher in private companies to hold recruitment rallies for IT students in Nagaland.

He maintained that a crucial part of India’s economy will come from IT but that computer literacy or IT in large companies alone would not push forward the economy except through overall e-governance.

Pilot said the government of India’s vision was to provide wide coverage of e-governance in the country and that Nagaland was making good overall progress on e-governance front. He pointed out that the Nagaland State Wide Area Network (SWAN), which was approved with an outlay of Rs. 21.05 crores, will establish seamless and secured intranet networks connecting state department offices and government entities within Nagaland. He informed that nearly 200 Common Service Centres (CSC) have been rolled out in the state.

The young minister also said the Government of India had invested a huge amount in North East, of which RIELIT Kohima was one. The total cost of construction of the building was Rs. 42 crores.

He urged the youth to take advantage of India’s advancement in IT field, adding that IT can play as a catalyst to break caste, ethnicity and diversity in India. Pilot further stated that North East becomes a special part while preparing India with the best of IT facilities. He stated that the Central Government envisions the growth of North East India to be at par with the rest of the country.

Earlier, project reports were given out by K.T. Sukhalu, secretary, Information Technology and Communications and Dr. Murthy, director of RIELIT. Advisor, IT, Vikho-o Yhoshü said the welcome address.

Media briefing: MoS Comm. & IT Sachin Pilot revealed that optical fibre connectivity was being laid through the country down to panchayat level with a vision to create IT friendly eco-system with wide coverage for bridging the gap between rural and urban areas.

Addressing the media, Pilot said the optical fibre connectivity would create a revolution in terms of internet broadband connectivity which was to reach 2.5 lakhs panchayats in the whole of India in two phases.

He said optical fibre connectivity, having unlimited speed, was the best way to give connectivity of the same quality to every corner of the country. He also informed that the government was setting up a special agency called the National Optical Fibre Agency which would take the lead to reach out to all parts of India with the highest quality of standard connectivity.

With the starting of the huge project, Pilot expressed optimism that the exercise of Optical Fibre connectivity is rolled out across the country including the North East.

The MoS also pointed out that as part of National e-governance plan, Government of India will modernize department of Posts by allotting an amount of Rs. 1,877 crores. India Post, which is considered to be the world’s largest postal network, with 1, 55,000 postal services, will be computerized in the next two years.

Pilot assured that Government of India was moving ahead in giving better IT infrastructure to North East, especially the youth who can benefit from the enormous opportunities in the IT sector.

Nagalandpost.Com