Online services

Calcutta, Sept. 11: The Bengal government will invite bids from private parties to manage the online interactions between various government service providers and citizens, under the state service delivery project (SSDG).

The project aims to reduce the number of visits by citizens to government offices for availing themselves of a service. SSDG could also help in significantly curtailing corruption in government departments.

The project will have an outsourced mode of operation. Agencies are expected to place financial bids within a month. SSDG is also expected to ensure greater synergy, connectivity and exchange of information between various departments.

“We have selected 25 services to be covered under the SSDG scheme. In some cases, back-end support to services may not be available. But we will continue to update relevant information manually,” said a Bengal IT department official.

Meanwhile, the electronic services delivery bill, passed by the Centre, has made it mandatory for all government departments to provide e-services over a period of time.

The official said an HR management system for state government employees is also on its way.

“The department will also set up a human resource management system in about six months. Servers have already been bought for the purpose. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been asked to help in the matter.”

“Data centres have already been established in several states. Online access could be taken as a move to bring in transparency and eliminate a parallel economy as every electronic transaction is recorded,” Santanu Ghose, country head, converge infrastructure solutions, Hewlett Packard India, said.