Official lethargy is marring prospects of the proposed 1109 Common Service Centres (CSC), billed as bridges of e-governance. As Haroon Mirani reports entrepreneurs are becoming wary of the much hyped project and surrendering the services.
As the J&K Bank is getting ready to inaugurate the first 100 of the 1109 proposed Common Service Centres (CSC), official lethargy has already taken off sheen of the project. The Bank was responsible for implementation of the project on ground by facilitating the identification and establishment of CSCs. The 1109 CSCs branded as the Khidmat Centres, are seen as self employment avenues that would sell mainly the government related information and services to people. These include documents like land records and birth and death certificates.
With the government departments unprepared on their part, the entire project is in doldrums. Apprehensive of the feasibility of the centres, many applicants have now backed off. “There is a confusion, worry as well as apprehensions about the project as shops are ready but there is nothing to sell,” said a bank official associated with the project.
At least 10 entrepreneurs have surrendered their right to start the Khidmat centres, officials confirmed. “Many more are also thinking on the same lines. They deem the Khidmat Centres to be too risky.”
The main apprehension among the entrepreneurs is that they won’t be able to break even not to talk of making profits by running these centres. The CSCs are a part of national e-governance plan (NeGP) that envisions delivery of information and services on the model of “web-enabled Anytime, Anywhere access.
The CSCs are to be linked with State Wide Area Networks (SWANs)/NICNET, National Data Bank, State Data Centres (SDCs) to give on time information about government working to the people.
Services
The Khidmat centres provide five basic services, which are categorised into State Government to Customer (SG2C), Central Government to Centre (CG2C), Business to Customer (B2C), Business to Business (B2B) and Institutions to Customer (I2C). Off these five services only CG2C is ready and B2C and I2C are in various stages of implementation, but the crucial SG2C is still missing.
The Unique Sales Proposition (USP) of these kiosks was to provide easily accessible state government service to the people. From these Khidmat centres the people would have the facility to get Land Records, Birth/Death Certificates, make grievances, form downloads and submissions, bill payments–water, electricity, telecom, etc., licenses, permits, subsidies, property tax and registration, bus pass, railway tickets, passport, etc.
According to the norm prevalent in other states also, various government departments get linked with the network of these centres and provide them an access to their data bank, which is necessary to provide such services.
But the government here is guarding these services “like some ancient treasure”, which is creating a frustrating atmosphere. “There is no integrated approach at various departmental level to provide the government services on an IT platform. The bureaucrats don’t know what to do and most importantly there is no will to implement the project,” said an official. “We have done our work which not only includes identifying or setting up these centers but also providing them with basic infrastructure, connectivity as well as tying up with private service providers for providing services like e-learning etc. Now it is the government which has to link its departments with these Khidmat centres.”
When contacted, Dr. Arun Kumar Principal Secretary IT categorically denied that government has to do anything with it. “No. no it is the concern of JK Bank. They are doing it. We have nothing to do with it. It is not our concern,” said Kumar before snapping the phone.
Infrastructure
A typical Khidmat centre has an establishing cost of around 2.5 lakh rupees which includes Rs 1.76 lakh for laptops, printers, VSAT and other such hardware. “The bank has provided them the soft loan so that the initial investment does not become a burden on the entrepreneur.” said an official. “Besides we have tied up market leaders for all the equipments to procure the hardwareI in bulk at cheaper rates for these CSCs.”
Contrary to the jumbled computer institutes, the Khidmat centres are aesthetically designed with sleek look. All of the CSC’s are built on a same design to give them a proper branding.
After making so much of investment the government approach has risked the feasibility of entire project.
Khidmat Centre also have a minimum recurring cost of Rs 5000 per month that includes Rs 3000 as loan instalment, Rs 1000 for VSAT services and Rs 1000 as rent. With such a cost over their head, the entrepreneurs feel they have to sit idle at their centres with assured financial disaster.
The bank on its part had spent a lot of energy in creating the infrastructure, selecting the people and training them on its own cost. The bank is spending more than five crore rupees in setting up a data centre for the network of these Khidmat Centres.
Desperate attempts
In a bid to save the CSC’s from closure the JK Bank has been helping in diversifying their services. The JK bank has roped in parties like MetLife, University of Kashmir, Board of Professional examinations, Board of School Education, Passport Office Srinagar and others to provide their services through these Khidmat centres.
The possible new services offered by these Khidmat Centres are Desktop publishing (DTP), Printing, Scanning, web surfing, Agri-business consulting and procurement, Bank Services like Loans, Deposits, etc. mobile recharge, phone sales, etc. English Speaking, Vocational courses. Tele-medicine, online shopping, trading, etc. There are other uses to the Khidmat centres as well. They can be used for Market Research, Surveys, Data Collection, Advertising, Branding and Promotional campaigns too.
The seasonal work for them would be during School / College Results, Printing Stationery for local Schools, ID card making for Schools and Colleges, Wedding Cards etc. In order to achieve the independence of these centres, there is also a proposal of providing Performance Linked Incentive to the entrepreneurs, whose Khidmat centre achieve set target of income.
History
The state government and Jammu and Kashmir Bank on February 20, 2009 had signed an agreement by virtue of which the J&K Bank will help in establishing 1109 CSC. After the agreement the J&K Bank became the Service Centre Agency for state of J&K. According to 2001 census the state has 6600 villages and each centre was to be established for a cluster of six villages. These CSC’s were to be built for the sole reason of taking government at the doorsteps of the people.
As JK Bank has started establishing the CSC’s, the state government on its part is sitting as a mute spectator.
“We have identified and recruited the potential candidates for around 100 CSC’s, which are to be inaugurated by Eid,” said a senior official of JK Bank. “But government seems to be not understanding the entire situation.”
According to the Central Government guidelines, the entire project has to be completed by one year after the agreement, failing which the state will be liable for the imposition of a fine.
The objective of these Khidmat centres is to provide one stop solutions through a multitude of services. By providing services like e Governance, education, health, finance, etc. Khidmat Centres have the potential to become the catalysts for the economic prosperity of the state.
The CSC Scheme is envisaged to be a bottom-up model for delivery of content, services, information and knowledge, that can allow like-minded public and private enterprises – through a collaborative framework – to integrate their goals of profit as well as social objectives, into a sustainable business model for achieving rapid socio-economic change in rural India.
The project is going on with full speed in rest of the India where 100,000 CSC’s to be set up in Rural India -10,000 in Urban India. The CSC’s are enabled with appropriate IT Infrastructure and Connectivity. The entire focus is on Rural Entrepreneurship & Market Mechanisms CSC’s are to be positioned as the retail extension outlets in rural areas. The CSC’s are an attempt to empower entrepreneurial skills with the power of technology The Scheme is not about rolling out IT Kiosks but building 100,000 micro-businesses in rural India.
