Chief Secretary inaugurates Digital Excellence Centres to strengthen e-governance across J&K
Blazing Tales News Service
SRINAGAR, July 27: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Monday inaugurated 12 Common Services Centre (CSC) Digital Excellence Centres across Jammu and Kashmir and called for greater utilisation of the CSC network to strengthen citizen-centric governance and ensure doorstep delivery of government services.
The Chief Secretary made these remarks while chairing a review meeting to assess the performance of Common Services Centres (CSCs) in the Union Territory and discuss strategies for expanding their role in digital governance.
Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, Commissioner Secretary, Information Technology, Administrative Secretaries, Chief Executive Officer of JaKeGA and senior officers of the Information Technology Department attended the meeting, while Deputy Commissioners from all districts joined through video conferencing.
The newly inaugurated Digital Excellence Centres have been established in Anantnag, Ganderbal, Kupwara, Pulwama, Shopian, Srinagar, Kathua, Jammu, Reasi, Kulgam, Ramban and Samba districts. These centres are aimed at promoting digital governance, improving digital literacy, enhancing the capacity of Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) and facilitating efficient delivery of Government-to-Citizen (G2C) services.
The Chief Secretary said the centres would serve as important hubs for creating awareness about digital services, encouraging the adoption of emerging technology platforms and supporting the implementation of flagship government programmes, thereby strengthening last-mile governance across the Union Territory.
Highlighting the importance of the CSC network, Dulloo said the more than 15,500 active CSCs operating across Jammu and Kashmir have the potential to become the backbone of grassroots digital governance. He stressed that the network should be fully utilised to ensure citizens, irrespective of their location, have easy and timely access to public services.
Reviewing the implementation of digital agriculture initiatives, the Chief Secretary directed the Revenue Department, Deputy Commissioners and CSC Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to jointly prepare an operational framework for conducting the digital crop survey through CSCs. He asked the departments to work towards completing the exercise by September to enable Jammu and Kashmir to qualify for incentives under the AgriStack programme.
He also instructed the Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Revenue Department to prepare a detailed roadmap for completing the creation of Farmer IDs under AgriStack by August 15, directing district administrations to accord top priority to the initiative.
To improve digital connectivity in rural areas, Dulloo directed that CSCs should take up the role of BharatNet Udyamis at the Panchayat level under the amended BharatNet Programme.
The Chief Secretary further called for expansion of services available through CSCs and asked the Information Technology Department and CSC SPV to integrate more government services beyond the existing 350 already being delivered through the platform.
He specifically emphasised the early integration of services related to the Labour Department, Single Window System, YUVA initiative, Jammu and Kashmir Competitiveness Improvement Project (JKCIP), SEHAT and other pending citizen-centric services.
Dulloo also directed the concerned departments to integrate major digital platforms, including the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), Unified Lending Interface (ULI), DigiLocker and GST Return Filing, with the CSC ecosystem to further strengthen digital public service delivery across Jammu and Kashmir.
