CSC to reach 2.5 lakh panchayat by year end : Minister

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad while addressing a function at village Dhanauri Kalan in Gautambudh Nagar, UP,on May 20, 2018, said that the network of Common Service Centres (CSCs), which act as access points for delivery of various electronic services to villages in India, are set to be expanded to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by the year end.

Addressing an event to showcase a host of digital services that will now be available at the digital village, Prasad said that the CSC movement had transformed into a movement of change bringing services like banking, pensions, digital literacy, and telemedicine to rural and remote villages through electronic infrastructure. Union Minister of Culture(IC) Dr Mahesh Sharma, who was also present at the event, said that the CSC project is providing sustainable digital access to rural communities.

Positioned as strategic cornerstones of Digital India programme, the CSC model has adopted six villages in the country in the pilot phase. DigiGaon or Digital Village is conceptualised as a connected village where citizens can avail various e-Services of the Central Government, state Governments and private players in a rural and remote villages in the country. These DigiGaons are projected to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods through community participation and collective action, according to aPIB release.

The digital villages have been equipped with solar lighting facility at their community centre, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin unit (with active participation of Asha and Anganwadi workers) and Wi-fi choupal (rural Wi-Fi infrastructure and a slew of suitable applications).

These villages would also have the regular CSC services like banking, health, education, financial services, and a host of other services. In the initial phase, villages Piyala and Dayalpur (in Haryana), Chandankiyari East and Shivbabudih (in Jharkhand) and Dhanauri Kalan and Sultanpur (in Uttar Pradesh) have been chosen for the pilot project.