ITANAGAR, Jun 12: Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday informed that by the year 2022, all offices of the state government, including those in the districts, will start functioning as e-offices.
Participating in an online workshop on ‘E-office for northeastern states’ from here, Khandu said that the process for digitalization of governance in the state began in 2016, in order to bring transparency and accountability.
“Taking cue from our prime minister’s call for Digital India, we have already rolled out e-office since August 2016. When India celebrates its 75th Independence Day in 2022, we hope to enroll all departments on digital platform,” he said during the workshop, which was chaired by DoNER Minister Dr Jitendra Singh.
Welcoming the DoNER ministry’s initiative to push e-office in the Northeast, Khandu said that, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, “effort should be on to minimize human-to-human interface as far as possible to contain the spread of the virus.”
The chief minister, however, requested for “consideration of high implementing cost per user and other inevitable costs required towards implementation of e-office by the government of India.”
He drew the ministry’s attention to the difficult terrains and extreme weather conditions of the region which hamper network connectivity, especially in the rural areas.
Highlighting the steps taken by the state government in rolling out e-offices, he informed that 11 offices in the state civil secretariat and five other government establishments have been “on-boarded.”
Among the departments are administrative reforms, general administration, IT & communication, transport, RWD, WRD, health & family welfare, home, personnel, the Staff Selection Board, and the state council for higher & technical education.
More than 1000 officers and officials of the civil secretariat have been trained to use e-office.
“The remaining offices under the secretariat and 22 directorates will be on-boarded in a time-bound manner within one month, while in the second phase, the remaining 45 departments will be on-boarded in three months,” Khandu informed.
The CM expressed gratitude to the DoNER minister and the DoNER secretary for accepting his proposal to utilize all funds under the North East Special Infrastructure Development and the NEC schemes for ramping up the healthcare sector for the next two years.
He informed that the Arunachal government will also use loans from the NABARD in the health sector.
“Covid-19 has opened up our eyes. Our main focus will be now to improve our healthcare sector. By the end of next two years, we hope to revamp all our hospitals, including those in the districts,” he added.
The online workshop was attended by the chief ministers and the chief secretaries of NE states, secretaries of the DoNER and the NEC, IT secretaries, and NIC officials. (CM’s PR Cell)
