Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani today announced Digital Seva Setu Program in rural areas under which, citizens will be able to reap benefits of various public welfare services at the Panchayat level itself. Citizens can get various documents like duplicate ration card, income certificate, senior citizen certificate, caste certificate etc. at their doorstep.

The Phase-1 of Digital Seva Setu will start from 8th October, 2020 in 2,000 Village Panchayats and provide 20 types of pro-people services. Another 8 thousand Village Panchayats will be covered by December 2020. Citizens will be able to reap benefits of this program by paying a nominal fee of Rs.20.

Under the provision of Article-3 of Oaths Act-1969, the government will provide powers of affidavit to the Talati cum Minister at the Village Panchayat level so that people in rural areas do not have to visit the notary offices in towns and cities.

The Chief Minister said he has also decided to use E-sign rather than physical signatures. Under this, the concerned person can avail the necessary documents at the click of a button in his/her mobile phone and the documents will be made available in DigiLocker.

An integrated and dedicated platform will be made in the future to encompass all the villages of Gujarat under Digital Seva Setu. This digital initiative will reduce human interface and propel a paperless working system.

The Digital Seva Setu has been initiated under the BharatNet Project- an initiative to connect the Village Panchayats through fibre network. Gujarat has been a leader in Phase-2 of the BharatNet project.

Villages of Gujarat will be connected with a 100 MBPS optical fibre network under the Digital Seva Setu.

The Seva Setu program was started by the Chief Minister in 2016. A cluster of 8-10 villages was made and a team of officers administered the Seva Setu camp of a particular cluster. People were provided on-spot solutions under this. According to government, more than 12,800 programs were completed and more than 2 crore people reaped benefits of the Chief Minister’s initiative to provide Governance at the Doorstep of common people.

Highlights:

– Launch in 2700 villages in first phase. 8,000 villages to be covered by December. 22 services are being availed today. Later on the number of services covered will be increased. Gradually all 14,000 gram panchayats will be covered.

– Villagers will visit E-gram centre. Application format is ready. They will apply. They will get approval there itself. They don’t need to visit taluka or district offices to avail listed 22 services including that of ration cards, duplicate ration card, widow certificate, temporary resident certificate, income certificate, caste, senior citizen, minority certi etc.

– Talati will have power of issue affidavit.

– The Chief Minister described this as historical governance initiative and said this is for the first time in India.

– The system is ready in 3500 villages, however due to the model code of conduct effective in connection with 8-assembly seat by-polls, 2700 villages are covered at present.

DeshGujarat

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