Assam Governor inaugurates two-day regional conference on e-Governance

 GUWAHATI: Governor Gulab Chand Kataria inaugurated a two-day regional conference on e-Governance in the presence of Minister of State, Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh, at Assam Administrative Staff College on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, Governor Kataria highlighted the government's commitment to realizing the vision of 'Digital India', with an aim to make India a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. "We are actively working to create a robust digital infrastructure that would serve the interests of our citizens and transform their lives. E-governance is an essential part of our dream of a digital India. The technologies that we are infusing in governance are all aimed at making our lives simple and easy,' the governor said.

Highlighting the importance of e-Governance, Kataria also said that e-Governance removes several obstacles that otherwise slow the pace of work and progress. E-governance ushers in transparency, eliminates corruption, timeliness of action, eliminates delay and reduces cost, and removes middlemen, etc. The governor said, "Our nation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading in digital technology. Further, the youthful energy that the nation possesses is our prized asset. We are therefore, as a part of e-Governance putting greater impetus on skill development through technology."

The governor also underlined the importance of m-Governance (mobile governance), which makes available services like bill payments, traffic alerts, traffic fine payments, and other utility services through the mobile phone. It also ensures access to Sewa Setu, a comprehensive citizen platform for connecting government and citizens for time-bound delivery of services as well as prompt redressal of grievances. He also said that Assam, which is a gateway to North Eastern states as well as to the South East Asian Nations, is a leading centre of IT that has cohesively merged technology, innovation, and governance to create a novel process of citizen-government engagement.

Kataria, however, said that the change from the conventional method to electronic filling requires a change in the mindset of the stakeholders. Therefore, people need to adapt themselves to electronic processes to reap the full benefits of e-governance initiatives. It is therefore pertinent on the part of different government agencies and other stakeholders to play a proactive role in facilitating this change. The success of e-governance completely depends on the successful and smooth management of change, procedural, technological, and cultural, the governor added.

The governor expressed happiness that in Assam too, e-Governance is one of the major initiatives of the Digital Assam programme. Citizens of Assam are now availing of various online services to apply for certificates, pay taxes, and avail government schemes. "I am happy that the State Government is implementing projects like "Mission Vasundhara" for digitization and mapping of land records through technology, "Mission Sadbhavana" for digitization of official files in the Secretariat, "Kritagyata Portal," and "Jeevan Pramaan for pensioners. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), in collaboration with the Government of Assam, has organized a two-day conference where Chief Secretary, Govt. of Assam Paban Kumar Borthakur, Secretary, DARPG V. Srinivas, Commissioner and Secretary, AR & Training Shantanu Gotmare, along with a host of other dignitaries, were present on the occasion. A booklet on the Journey of 25 Regional Conferences and the e-journal MGMG (July-December 2023 edition) on e-Governance Initiatives were also released.

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