Rural e-kiosk delays upset Bengal

P&RDD has accused Reliance of slow progress in executing the project. This prompted the department to sent "reminders" to the company, asking it to hasten work, said a top official from the state P&RD department.

In total, 6,797 CSCs were supposed to be rolled out in all the 18 districts of the state by April this year. Out of this, Reliance was to set up 1,860 kiosks in four districts of the state.

However, Reliance had managed to roll out less than 40 such centres, according to the P&RD department official. The company has not rolled out a single e-kiosk in West Medinipore, where it was supposed to set up 395 e-kiosks.

The official spokesperson of Reliance, who was also in-charge of the project, did not reply to an e-mail asking the possible reason behind the delay.

"Reliance is slow in setting up the e-koisks. We are assessing the situation, and hope that they finish the work within the extended time frame," said M N Roy, principal secretary, P&RD department.

Under the CSC scheme of West Bengal, the entire state was divided into eight zones, out of which six zones were awarded to SREI Sahaj e-Village Limited, a subsidiary of SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited.

Under the Master Service Agreement (MSA), signed last year between the state government and the two private companies, for setting up e-kiosks, there is a provision to cancel the deal, said Ray.

"However, the department will not opt for it until required, as the aim of the government was to bring the scheme into existence," said Roy. While Srei was to set up 4,937 CSCs, till now it has rolled out 1,522 e-kiosks.