Punjab CM urges PM to include state in 'Digital India' plan

Seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s direct intervention to include state in the Digital India programme, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday urged him to fund the state government’s ambitious programme for establishing 2,174 unified citizen service delivery centres at a cost of Rs 550 crore under integrated approach towards e-Governance.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Badal shared his view point with the former saying Punjab is emerging as one of the leaders in implementing e-Governance initiatives in every sphere of governance in order to bring paradigm shift in citizen service delivery and government functioning.

The state has been a front-runner in implementing various mission mode projects under National e-Governance Plan; namely, e-District, State Service Delivery Gateway, Statewide Area Network and State Data Centre.  

In order to provide broadband connectivity to more than 12,000 gram panchayats of the state under National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) Project, the state has already approved free 'right of way' to implement the project in the state at a faster pace, added the chief minister.