JAMMU: Acting on the directions of Minister for Information Technology, Satish Sharma, the IT Department conducted a surprise inspection of various Common Service Centres (CSCs) working in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Minister has issued strict directions to the concerned authorities to launch a crackdown on all the CSCs indulging in overcharging and facilitating the common masses.
Pertinently, the J&K administration is enforcing a strict monitoring and regulatory mechanism to ensure that CSCs adhere to notified rates. In this regard, regular audits and inspections are being carried out by dedicated Divisional Level Inspection teams of the IT Department to identify and penalise those engaged in overcharging.
In this regard, Principal Secretary of Information Technology, Santosh Vaidya, has also issued directions to the Deputy Commissioners, who are Chairpersons of District e-Governance Societies (DeGs), to ensure strict enforcement of notified rates in their respective districts so that the general public does not suffer on this account.
A series of surprise inspections of various Common Services Centres (CSCs) were conducted across Jammu and Kashmir to cross-check and verify their adherence to government-notified rates. The inspection teams, under the supervision of Aijaz Qaiser, Additional Secretary IT Department, were sent to the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu division and Baramulla and Kupwara in Kashmir division.
During the surprise checks, 15 CSCs of Rajouri and 16 CSCs of Poonch district were inspected in Jammu division while 55 CSCs of Baramulla and 50 CSCs of Kupwara district were inspected in Kashmir division.
To achieve the goal of Digital India by providing seamless online services to the general public, new touch points for CSCs are being set up in various Government offices like Deputy Commissioner offices, Block Development offices, Tehsil offices, Social Welfare offices, ARTO offices, Colleges and Universities. Directions have been issued to all Deputy Commissioners to allocate the spaces in all such offices for setting up new touchpoints. Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs) in districts have been nominated as nodal officers to facilitate and accelerate the opening of new touchpoints.
As on date, 664 new CSC touchpoints have been established, so far, and 17878 CSCs are active and providing services on Digi-Seva Portal in the J&K.
IT Department has notified rates to avail of various online services which envisages Rs 50 per service for government-to-citizen service and Rs 75 for government-to-business services.
Acting on complaints of overcharging, 661 CSC licenses have been cancelled in the past 1 year (627 in the financial year 2023-24 and 53 in this current financial year 2024-25). Meanwhile, Vice President CSC-SPV J&K has been directed to ensure that the notified rates are prominently displayed at a conspicuous place in each CSC sensitizing all village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) regarding notified rates. It has also been directed to ensure the availability of VLEs by developing a properly certified mechanism so that the general public can avail of online services seamlessly.
