Gogoi for continued aid for e-governce projects

GUWAHATI, August 12: Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi urged Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad to continue fincial assistance from the Government of India for e-Governce projects in order to realize the declared goal of a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. In a statement issued to the press, Gogoi said the IT projects like e-District, State Data Centre (SDC), State Portal along with State Service Delivery Gateway (SP&SSDG), Common Service Centers (CSC), State Wide Area Network (SWAN) & Capacity Building under the tiol e-Governce Plan (NeGAP) were earlier provided fincial assistance from the Government of India. In addition to the Government of India components, some of these projects were supplemented with State fund to include additiol infrastructure and services.

However, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India has informed the State Government that the funds would not be allocated for the projects under NeGAP for the year 2015-16. In his letter to the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology today, Chief Minister Gogoi said that the sudden discontinuation of fincial assistance from the Government of India for these projects will seriously hamper the implementation of these public service-oriented projects in Assam.

The Chief Minister further stated that the Government of India has launched the Digital India programme but the State Government has not yet received any details of the modalities and proposed fund allocation etc., till date. He further stated that commitment of fincial support from the Government of India is necessary to realize fully the ambitious goals of this programme for the benefit of the people of Assam.