Orissa to roll out 8558 Common Services Centre

Business standard, 18th June, 2008

As part of the National e-Governance Plan (NEGP), the Orissa government today signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with three private operators for rolling out 8558 Common Service Centres (CSCs) in the state. Those centres will be developed on build-own-operate (BOO) model for first five years.
The Common Service Centres will come up in the rural areas with at least one centre in every Gram Panchayat in the state. Stringent service level agreement has been prescribed to ensure the service quality. CSCs will deliver government to citizen (G2C) services like land records, registration, certificates, details of the government scheme, pension scheme, utility bill payments, road transport and employment exchange.
It will also deliver Business to Consumer (B2C) services like typing, photography, internet surfing, agri-information, railway and air ticketing among others. Similarly, business to business (B2B) services like market research, surveys, rural BPO services, advertising , branding and promotions will be provided by the CSCs.
The three operators who signed MoUs with the Orissa government are Bangalore based CMS Computers Ltd, New Delhi-based Zoom Developers Private Ltd and the SREI Infrastructure Private Ltd. It has been decided to name the CSCs as Biju Seba Kendras (BSKs).
While Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, secretary, IT department, signed the documents on behalf of the Orissa government, Ranbir Das, VP (SREI Sahaj E-Village Ltd), AK Tiwari, VP (E-governance), Zoom Developers and K Jagannath, national business manager (CMS Computers) signed for their respective companies.
As per the agreement, CMS Computers will set up 4962 CSCs in zone-I, II and V. Zoom Developers will set up 1314 CSCs in zone III and SREI Infrastructure Finance will set up 2282 CSCs in zone-IV and VI. The cost of setting up each Centre will be around Rs 3 to 4 lakhs.
Each CSC will have at least one furnished room in each Panchayat with facilities of computer, printer, digital camera, web cam, scanner, UPS and internet connectivity. These operators were selected through the competitive bidding process. The planning commission (PC) has approved Rs 135 crore under the NEGP.
Speaking on the occasion, state IT minister S N Patro said, those centres will be developed in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and the state government will provide revenue support to the operators for the first four years to make the scheme sustainable.
He said, the Orissa government will provide Rs 5000 per month per centre to the developer in zone-VI consisting of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nawaranagpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada districts and Rs 1190 per cenre every month in zone-III consisting of Angul, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Sundergarh districts.
The zero payment principle will be applicable for zone-IV consisting of Baragarh, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Jharsuguda and Boudh districts and the developers will pay Rs 5 per month for each centre in zone-I and Rs 11 per month per centre in zone-II. The people can avail a host of services from the CSCs with nominal payments. Such centres will be functional within 6 months in the Gram Panchayats having their own building, Patro added.
Commissioner-Secretary, IT department, Orissa government P K Mohapatra said, these centres will generate direct employment for more than 17,000 youth as two persons will be appointed for each centre. Started as part of the NEGP, the scheme will be extended to the urban areas and tender will be floated for it within a month, he pointed out.