Chief minister Naveen Patnaik at an e-governance review meeting in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, June 20: The e-district programme, which has been launched in two districts on a pilot basis to provide various services to the people online, will be extended to the remaining 28 districts by September next year.

Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik took a decision to this effect at a review meeting today.

Presently, the e-district programme is being implemented in Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts. The programme has achieved a significant success in Ganjam district, the meeting was told.

It was decided that the pilot programme would cover all the thirty districts by September, 2012. The Centre would provide Rs 90 crore for the implementation of the project, while the additional expenses would be borne by the state government, said information technology secretary, P.K. Jena.

Under the project, various services will be made available to the people on electronic mode. The services will range from registration of births and deaths to the issuance of various certificates, processing of applications for old age pension and mutation of land records. People will have to pay a minimum service charge of Rs 20 to avail the benefits of the scheme.

Citizens can apply for various services including birth/death registration, issuance of nine types of certificates, sanction of old age pension and land-related matters sitting at any common service centre near their home, said an official of information technology department.

The documents, which can be made available through the internet, include disability certificate, income certificate, residence certificate, nationality certificate, legal heir certificate, solvency certificate, caste certificate, other backward caste (OBC) certificate and socially and educationally backward caste (SEBC) certificate. Citizens can also get work relating to revenue court cases such as change of land ownership, grant of lease and issuance of certified copies of orders passed by revenue courts using the service done. They can also apply for benefits under social security schemes such as old age pension and benefits under National Family Benefit Scheme. Consumers will no longer have to run to food and civil supplies office for issue of duplicate ration cards. They can apply for the same sitting at the nearby common service centre. Information under the Right to Information Act can now be had through the internet. Under the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project, the state secretariat has been connected online with 30 district headquarters and 279 block headquarters. The remaining 35 block headquarters will be connected soon.

Similarly, 4,710 government establishments at the district level and below including tehsil offices, health centres, treasuries and agriculture offices will linked through horizontal connectivity.

A state-of–the-art video conferencing facility and a state data centre are being set up in the capital. The data centre, which will have a storage capacity of 80 terabyte, 24-hour security system and biometric access facilities, is expected to be operational by next month.

Similarly, a State Service Delivery Gateway programme is under implementation to provide all the government services to the citizens through a single portal. The programme will be operational within the next eight months.

Similarly, a State Service Delivery Gateway programme is under implementation to provide all the government services to the citizens through a single portal. The programme will be operational within coming eight months.