E-governance: Karnataka’s GramaOne logs one-crore plus citizen services in 9 months of launch

The landmark achievement, the e-governance department said, has come in nine months of the launch of the programme in January this year. E-governance secretary V Ponnuraj said they have approached the GramaOne programme in a such way which makes the centres viable as they offer a combination of services. He felt the service will see a demand for a longer time as digital literacy will take some more time to catch up in villages.

State’s electronic delivery of citizen services (EDCS) director Dileesh Sasi said the programme has also accelerated financial inclusion in villages. “GramaOne centres act also as micro banking institutions. Since the opening of these centres, we see more people applying for PAN card enrolment.”

A villager’s ease of access to government services is at the core of the programme, GramaOne project director Varaprasad Reddy BN said.

“GramaOne is envisaged as a single-point assistance centre for all citizen-centric activities at the village level, and it has had a phenomenal success across all the 31 districts of the State, with as many as 1 crore people benefiting from the programme.” Reddy also heads Seva Sindhu and Jana Sevaka programmes.

Seva Sindhu got PM’s award for excellence in public administration, last year. The government is implementing GramaOne in PPP mode.

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“GramaOne is, in fact, a realisation of the dream of Swaraj of Mahatma Gandhi and Suraaj of Atal Behari Vajpayee,” Reddy said, adding that the programme is at the heart of the state government’s Seva Sindhu initiative.

The encouraging response in villages has led to the government planning 1,600 GramaOne centres in addition to the existing 7,112 centres. The aim is to have at least one GramaOne in each gram panchayat in the State, Reddy said.

Currently, about 800 services – like G2C (government to citizens), B2C (business to citizens), banking services, and RTI (right to information) queries – are being delivered through the 7,112 centres in all the districts of the State, Reddy said.

According to Reddy, villagers used to commute long distances to avail multiple government services, but the GramaOne bring the services to their doorstep, helping them save time, energy, and money. “These centres, operational from 8 am to 8 pm, also free the citizens from the menace of middlemen. Besides that, the timely delivery of quality service boosts socio-economic development.”