PANAJI: The 191 village panchayats as well as the 50 Zilla Panchayats around the state will go paperless from April 2017, with the aid of e-governance solution software, which will be further linked to the e-payment gateway integrated with the digital signatures, so that cashless transactions could be facilitated with the help of Point of Sale (Pos) machines installed in these panchayat bodies.
Minister for Panchayati Raj, Rajendra Arlekar, who launched the software at the department of panchayats on Tuesday, said that the project is aimed at eliminating corruption in the panchayat bodies by bringing in transparency through online transactions. “All the panchayat bodies will be directly linked to the department of panchayats as well as the office of the Minister for Pancahyati Raj,” he added.
Speaking further, Arlekar said that even the applications made to these panchayat bodies, in the form of hard copies, would be immediately digitised and made available online. “Furthermore, the status of the application would also be made known to the applicant on day-to-day basis,” he noted, observing that whenever decision about applications pertaining to trade licence, construction licence, death and birth certificates and so on, would be taken by the panchayat bodies, the applicants would receive alerts in the form of SMSs on their mobile phones.
“Furthermore, the details of the fund management as regards various schemes of the department of panchayat would also be made available online,” the Minister for Panchayati Raj stated, adding that such transparency would save people from the trouble of seeking information about the department, under the Right to Information Act. “The government has already provided a fund of Rs 4.57 crore for the purpose of connectivity of village panchayats as well as installation of the software,” he said.
The e-governance software would support Konkani and Marathi language interface so that the information can be accessed by most of the population. It will further provide alerts about gram sabhas of various village panchayats as well as details about the panchayat elections.
Director of panchayats Gurudas Pilernkar and North Goa Zilla Panchayat Adhyaksha Ankita Navelkar were also present on the occasion.
Later, speaking with the pressmen, Arlekar said that the government has already provided the village panchayats around the state with communication units including IP telephones. However, in spite of installation of these units they are yet to function through the Goa Board Band Network.