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Not long from now, citizens will be able to get basic government services from all departments online, which means they can not only find forms but also fill and submit them, get an acknowledgement and later track the status of their applications, all at the same place.
This government to citizen services is all set to receive a boost as the government has just approved a project to design a portal to secure all government services online. Termed as the State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), the project envisages setting up a portal, which will offer the citizens basic services from all the departments.
Formulated under the National e-governance plan, the portal is expected to be functional in nine months.
This facility allows even those departments, which are not completely automated, to deliver services through the portal, as all the backend services will be handled by the e-governance department.
KSWAN finally ready
The much-delayed Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN), which will be launched next week, has been running smoothly in its test runs. The programme will establish video, voice and data communication across the state, district and taluka headquarters.
The network which has been in the use for the last three months, was instrumental in establishing connections to the district and taluk-level flood relief works enormously.
CEO, Centre of e-governance, D S Raveendran said that at the moment, 2,279 offices were connected through broadband and another 2,000 offices were hooked through dial-up connections.
He also said that they are attempting to establish not only vertical connections, but also horizontal connections in terms of linking up all the departments in a particular district or taluk.
Currently, all the districts are connected with video and voice, but talukas will be linked with video, once the network
stabilises.
Checkposts
Departments like Transport even have some of their checkposts connected through KSWAN, and others like Treasury, Stamps and Registration, Food and Civil Supplies, Municipal bodies, Bhoomi, PWD and the Rural Department Engineering division, also have their systems hooked to KSWAN. The system which boasts of six connections provided by BSNL and four others provided by Bharti and Reliance, uses MPLS networks (Multiprotocol Label Switching).
Interestingly, all the district courts and some of the prisons have also been networked with KSWAN and some of the hearings have already been conducted via teleconferencing.
Two mobile vans have also been introduced at Dharwad and Bangalore. Each of these vans will be equipped with broadband connectivity, studio and facilities to set up a studio anywhere.