Cool Bihari: E-governance in Rural Bihar

Bihar govt. has taken a laudable initiative to initiate the e-governance project in all its 8,479 panchayats at a cost of INR 252 million.

The proposal that was approved last week at a state cabinet meeting in Patna aims at setting up a panchayat information centres or panchayat portals called Vasudha Kendras that will enable villagers to connect with the outside world and provide affordable and easy access to information about the government and its policies.

These Vasudha Kendras would further be connected to all state departments through the Internet and the government will provide computers and Internet connections at the panchayat level centre. According to the plan, eight government departments, including the chief minister secretariat, will be linked to the State-wide Area Network (SWAN).

The project aims at establishing direct contact with villagers and making the functioning of the government more transparent.

According to reports, the project would be developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) along with the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation, a state-owned IT body, while Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) will monitor the implementation.The state had provided top administrative officials and ministers with laptops as part of its e-Governance initiative only recently. Besides, it has also connected all its 38 district headquarters through video-conferencing link.

Initiatives like these definitely give more credibility to the idea of Bihar 2.0 and if executed well it bring about lot of ground level changes at the local level . One of the challenges which Bihar is facing today is that of proper governance at micro levels like panchyats and small districts. Govt funds and other incentives to boost employment opportunities and income levels in these villages have proved to be an execution nightmare due to inefficiencies existing in the current structure. The advent of e-governance will surely improve things at ground level at it will allow govt officials to keep closer watch on the project implementation and execution of ideas at grassroots levels.

Labels: Bihar 2.0, Bihar Govt., Development Projects in Bihar, E-Governance in Bihar, Grassroot Innovation, Infrastructure, Social Entrepreneurs

Posted by Ajit Chouhan on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 at 2:24 PM | Permalink

About me

I'm Ajit Chouhan
From Houston, TX, United States

My profile

Archives

My Other Blogs

hello
i am a also from bihar, and working in delhi. few days back i heard about vashudha kendra, what is that actially, how can be one become a member of this kendra, i am really interested in this. you can directely e mail me on archie_wishmwe@rediffmail.com

waiting for your answer

its krity

Posted by Anonymous | 2:36 PM

sir,
project of vasudha is too good, but it does not ensures public participation within e-governance. In an e-governed state people must have the tools and skill to interface directly with government department.
sir, we are an NGO namely "Welfare Society & Human Development" situated at Daan nagar, Khagaria. We are under proceeding the project namely "Village Information and Knowledge Yard". through the project the organisation trying to connect the people with IT and self employment simultaneouly. The Main feature of this project is to facilitate the people with skill to operate the computer to access the information on web, for this purpose they will be provided with a relevant tools too.
For the experiment the project will be run in the district- Khagaria as model
one can contact for more information : wshd1251@gmail.com
Ph : 9204595495

Posted by vishwajit | 8:42 AM