Dear VLEs,

From various districts many VLEs are contacting me over phone, about the status of the centre and about the scheme. My sincere thanks to all.

Now, i learnt that our Tamilnadu Government is seriously taking various steps to be taken to solve the present crisis.

The present VLEs will not get affected, if they are willing to continue in this business.

May be, by end of this month, TNeGA will authorise a new Company to implement this project. Meanwhile, I request all the existing VLEs to stay in this business, and ready to invest a very marginal amount in the new proposed company.

Hereafter, we have no CSC business/issues with M/s. 3i-Infotech Ltd. other than asking them to refund the deposit money at the earliest.

Since, the founders of this association are already having the required knowledge about this project, this association strongly believes in this business, its viability, and other benefits the VLEs are going to get in the future. So, I request all the VLEs not to waste their energy/focus & money on the matters which happened in the past.

This association will be formally registered by end of this month. All VLEs please contact thro mail ( tncscfwa@gmail.com ) or over phone 9843050238, for further information.

Regards

K.Gurunathan

CSC News from Orissa

Dear VLEs,


The grievance cell of the Chief Minister of Orissa is now being hi-tech. The Chief Minister will hear the grievances of the peoples on line.

The grievance of the people will be sent through e-Mail to the Chief Minister. The grievances will be heard immediately and the action taken will be intimated through website. All arrangements have finalized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell (CMGC) will be e-Enabled so that people can directly lodge their grievances at the Common Service Centre (CSC) being opened at the panchayat level.


This association requests the TNeGA, to take neccessary action to implement this service also in our Makkal Kanini Myiam, so that not only the VLEs but also the Common public will get benefited.

CSC NEWS FROM UTTAR PRADESH

Dear VLEs,

This news is from Uttar Pradesh state.

Moving a step further on online availability of land records under its land records computerization programme,Uttar Pradesh governments has decided to update changes in land records in real time and certify the latest updated land record by digital signature of the authority in district.

This e-governance project will be implanted in six e-districts of the state namely Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Rae Bareily, Sultanpur, Sitapur and Gorakhpur.

“The decision has been made by the government and we are working on the procedure involved to improve connectivity among servers and software that will be required for this project. Software will be ready by mid-March,” said S.B.Singh, state information, officer, National Informatics Centre, UP in an interaction with CIOL. NIC will be implementing agency of this project.

The state government has also proposed to make this project accessible from COMMON SERVICE CENTRE where a village-level entrepreneur will be able to charge Rs 25 for providing the same document.

Our Tamilnadu Government also can follow this project, in our Makkal Kanini Myiam, so that not only VLEs but also the Common public will get benefited.

This association request the Government, particularly TNeGA to take initiative in this regard, and implement during the World Tamil Conference proposed in Coimbatore.
With best Regards,

K. Gurunathan

Appeal to all VLEs

Dear VLEs,

As expected the Government has acted swiftly, and it is now certain that, 3i-Infotech ltd. is no longer the implementing agency for the CSC project at Tamilnadu. Our sincere thanks to the TNeGA,for taking a decision in the interest of this project.

In this situation, 3i-infotech should refund the entire money collected from the VLE ( Rs. 1,25,000) without any deductions, and should leave the materials as it is with the existing VLEs.

Even though the cost of the materials is very low, (due to quality of the materials supplied) it will to little extent compensate the loss incurred by the VLEs.

This may be the Hon'ble exit for a leaving company.

This Association on behalf of all VLEs, demanding the company as stated above to refund the money of Rs. 1,25,000, and leave the materials as it is with the VLEs.

At least we can start the business with the new implementing agency with already available infrastructure. The value of the materials may not match with the loss incurred so far, but can useful to continue the business.

All VLEs please contact this association in this regard.

with best wishes,

K.Gurunathan
9843050238

[A NEWS FROM JHARKHAND STATE

 

Ranchi: From April 2010 onwards, people residing in interiors of Jharkhand might not need visiting the district headquarters for issuance of certificates related to birth, death, income and residential addresses.

They can have them issued right at their nearby Pragya Kendras, ( Makkal Kannani Miyam in Tamilnadu state) also known as Common Service Centres (CSC), at the panchayat levels.

As part of its drive to extend the reach of information technology (IT) facilities up to the village level, the State government has drawn up a comprehensive plan to launch e-Nagrik services at all 4562 panchayat kendras across the State.

The proposal was finalized last week at a high-level meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahato, who also holds the Rural Development portfolio.

The IT facilities will be made available to villagers under the e-Nagrik scheme that envisages issuance of various certificates like birth, death, income, caste, etc, from the CSCs at a nominal cost.

Till now, people residing in rural areas have to rely on block offices and the district headquarters.

The JharNet (Swan) and JAP-IT (Jharkhand agency for promotion of information technology) together have been assigned the job for developing necessary infrastructure at the Panchayat levels to make the CSCs function smoothly.

The government has decided to extend the much-talked about e-Nagrik facilities to all panchayats after successful operation of its pilot project last year at eight CSCs, which processed over 55,000 certificates in a span of three months, IT secretary Shailesh Kumar Singh said.

 

We also hope, in the near future similar facility will be available in our Makkal Kanini Miyam also.

We earnestly request the Government of Tamilnadu, particularly, the Tamilnadu e-Governance Agency to launch this service by June 2010, at the World Tamil Conference at Coimbatore.

Dear VLEs,

This is regarding the mail from CEO, TNeGA, this association, request all the VLEs of 3i-Infotech, to express their willingness in continuing the present business. The Government may consider protecting the existing VLEs interest, and also their continuation as VLEs, if a change in the implementing agency, only if majority of the existing VLEs are expressing positively.

Our issues with the present implementing agency namely 3i-Infotech will no way influence the decision of the Government, since the dispute is between the VLEs & 3i-Infotech. We have found a way to overcome this problem.

So, this TN CSC Franchisee's Welfare Association requesting all the present 3i-Infotech VLEs send an email expressing their willingness in continuing in the present business/address, and to serve the common people.

For details contact

k.Gurunathan

9489611092

tncscfwa@gmail.com

[Enter Post Title Here]FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE VLEs

FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE VLEs

 

The CEO of Tamil nadu e-Governance Agency Dr. Santhosh Babu I.A.S , has sent an email to all the 3i-Infotech VLEs, asking about certain details, like valid mail ID, their continuation in the present business if any change in implementing agency etc.

On behalf of the TN CSC Franchisee's Welfare Association, we urge all the VLEs to reply immediately expressing their consent in continuing in this Common Service Centre Business even if any change in the implementing agency.

 

K. Gurunathan

 

Will post more ……

 

 

 

VLEs financial loss in the CSC business

:

Some of my thoughts...........

DIT, Government of India has included the provision of subsidy of Rs.3, 000 to VLEs, as a viability gap funding, because of the unavailability of government services in the initial months. But this has not translated into a smart move in Tamilnadu, since the private bidders, mesmerized by the lucrative Request For Proposal (RFP), and with assumptions of making money immediately after setting up these centres, rejected the subsidy amount at the time of bidding and had even gone to the extent of making their bids in negative. Now, after being the Implementing Agency, the private player has a strong feeling that it may not be a viable business, with the existing situations. Resultantly, the enthusiasm with which they entered into CSCs has faded and this has made the implementation & sustainability rate of CSCs considerably slow.  Due to this the VLEs who comes under 3i-Infotech jurdisction, has to bear the brunt.

A live example of this can be found in AP. Out of three bidders for CSC, CMS made its bid at zero. 3i Infotech went many steps ahead and made its bid in negative, precisely, - which means that the company would be paying to the government Rs.351 per centre. Now the situation is that already 3i Infotech is out of the CSC project in the state. Now exactly similar situation prevails in Tamilnadu also. 

Need of the hour is specific bouquet of B2C services:


A year after signing of deal, the stakeholders are increasingly realizing that a solution can be a bouquet of services (especially B2C, given the fact that even in coming months there are doubts if the government services will be made available to these centres), improvised according to the local needs and necessities of the people, if the centres have to be made viable.

The other implementing agency in Tamilnadu is coming up with such services, which can be bundled with these centres to make it viable.

There is no dearth of examples of bundling B2C services to CSCs in many parts of the country. Like in Palamau district of Jharkhand, the Deputy Commissioner has utilized the centres in the election times, for making videos and appointing the operators as civil monitors of the elections campaigns.

In our Tamilnadu also, recently Election Commission has issued a G.O, which enables the CSCs, to act as the front end agents for the citizen's name inclusion/deletion/capturing photo images in the electoral roll, and other related services thro on-line.

Gujarat is another place where e-Kiosks set up by dairy authorities, popular as Dairy Information Service Kiosk (DISK) have been used to sell milks and have an up to date account of the sales, reducing time of the each farmer in selling to these centres and people purchasing milks at reasonable rates to these centres. Earlier the queue of people coming for purchasing purpose was longer, but after the setting up of thousands of kiosk, the queue of farmers selling milk to these centres increased and queue for purchasing decreased with speedy and fair business. Similar things can be done anywhere, viewing the local needs of the people.

More recently, NREGS works have been entrusted by the CSCs by the Government of India, and the same is yet to be introduced in Tamilnadu.

The potential of an ICT enabled kiosk in providing employment, business, education, services, information on health and agriculture are quite apparent and huge. But this can not be realized until issues surrounding CSCs like - lack of understanding of this project by both the implementing Agency and the VLEs, lack of will in e-Enabling the processes in government departments; unavailability of need specific B2C services, and lack of awareness about the ICT concept - and more importantly lack of viability gap funding to the VLEs– are resolved.

Will post more.....

k. Gurunathan

Dear TN CSC Franchisees,

Greetings to all.

This welfare association has been started by the like minded persons to safeguard the interest of the VLEs of Tamilnadu state who are all the franchisees of the implementing agencies for the implementation of NeGP scheme initiated by the Government.

In Tamilnadu, these CSCs are officially called as 'Makkal Kannini Myiam'

Totally 5440 CSCs are to be placed in Rural areas for rendering various G2C & B2C business to the Citizens.

But, the progress of this Scheme in Tamilnadu is very poor & slow when compared with other states. This is because of the lack of planning, understanding on the part of the implementing agency and to some extend the State Government also to be blamed.

This resulted the existing VLEs to suffer financially.

This association will strive hard to safeguard the existing VLEs to sustain in this business profitably, by offering solutions to the present problems and also will guide the stakeholders in making decisions, which will be beneficial to all - particularly to the VLEs.

The promoters of this association has the required knowledge of this kind project for the past 10 years and pioneer of this kind project in Tamilnadu.

This association is not against anyone, will engage a healthy dialogue with the stakeholders of this project (including with the Government) and try to find a solution for the problems now persists, and suggest the ways/services to promote this business in very profitable manner under very cordial atmosphere.

This association will always keep in mind that safeguarding the VLEs interest is the first and paramount duty while engaging in any activity.

This Association is of a non-political entity and always remain so in future.

Like minded Franchisees are requested to contact this association, so that we can find a lasting solutions to the issues now faced.

Contact

tncscfwa@gmail.com

9489611092

K. Gurunathan