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| Distribution cos ink tripartite pact for online payment of power bills |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar Jan 01, 2010, 00:26 IST |
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Paving the way for online payments of electricity bills by the consumers through Common Service Centres (CSCs), the four power distribution companies in the state namely Cesu, Wesco, Nesco and Southco today signed a tripartite agreement with the Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) and its special purpose vehicle (SPV) named as Orissa e-Governance Services Ltd. (OeSL).
Manoj Patnaik, general manager, OCAC and Pradeep Rout, director, OeSL signed the agreement with the representatives of the distcoms in the presence of the energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, IT minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi and senior officials of the state government.
Speaking on the occasion, Nayak said, about 4000 CSCs have become operational in the state. The targets is to make 7500 CSCs operational in the next 6 months which will go a long way in meeting the requirement of the rural consumers in the state. This will be in addition to the existing collection centres of the power distribution companies, he added. As per the agreement, the consumers will be able to pay their electricity bills through the citizen centric gateway ‘Orissa online’ developed by OCAC. So the common man both in rural and urban areas would be able to pay their bills either through cash or through online debit from their accounts.
Though the consumers will not be required to pay more money, the distribution companies will pay Rs 5 per bill to the CSCs. OCAC and OeSL will not charge anything from the CSCs initialy. However, in the long run a revenue sharing model will be worked out, P K Mohapatra, secretary, IT said.
It may be noted, as part of the national e-governance plan, the state government is making efforts to provide government to citizen services at the doorstep of the common man in electronic platform through CSCs. The chief minister has mandated every department to identify various services to be delivered through CSCs. Energy secretary P K Jena and officials of the power distribution companies were present on the occasion.
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