To facilitate single-window interaction between citizens and the government, Karnataka is planning to launch ‘Gram Van’ centers similar to ‘Bangalore Forest’ and ‘Karnataka Van’ centers in villages across the state.
According to officials, ‘Gram Van’ centers will be opened in different villages of the state to provide government services under one roof in the villages.
The ‘Gram Van’ service was launched in November last year as a pilot project in 100 villages of Davangere district and is now expected to be launched in more villages by the e-governance department and revenue department.
A senior official of the e-governance department working closely on the project said Indian Express Setting up of ‘Village Van’ centers in more villages was discussed in a recent meeting with Karnataka Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar.
“The pilot project has been successfully implemented and now we are soon starting to set up Village Van Kendras in different villages,” the official said.
“With Village Van, people need not visit government offices at taluka and district level as they can avail services at Village Van offices by eliminating middlemen. Village One is envisaged to be a single-point support center for all citizen-centric activities at the village level which includes G2C services, banking services, RTI queries etc,” explained the official.
The government wants to streamline the system where citizens can save time and money by availing services through these centres, open every day from 8 am to 8 pm.
Officials said the state government is planning to add more services, including micro banking, in the coming months. “Besides these services, the centers will also act as a platform for registration of skill development training for the youth. Through ‘Gram Van’ all the work can be done at the village level itself.”
There are 146 state-owned and 32 franchise-owned ‘Bangalore One’ centers in Bengaluru. The ‘Bangalore One’, ‘Karnataka One’ centers and associated websites have been conceptualized to electronically deliver the services of various government departments and private companies under one roof in a citizen-friendly manner.
The first ‘Bangalore One’ center was started on 2nd April, 2005. The Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services, DPAR (e-Governance), is maintaining Bangalore Forest and Karnataka Forest Centers in 17 cities of Karnataka.
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