UP asks NIC, BSNL to speed up IT project

The Uttar Pradesh government has asked the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to speed up the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project in the state.

SWAN is aimed at facilitating dispensing a host of services to the people in urban and rural areas with the help of information technology (IT).

State IT and electronics department Principal Secretary Chandra Prakash recently reviewed its progress and asked NIC and BSNL to develop a SWAN model at the division level also.

So far, 229 tehsils and 516 blocks spanning 70 districts have been mapped with SWAN.

Prakash said SWAN had facilitated disbursal of Rs 1,700 crore worth of scholarships to 3.5 million children in the state.

Besides, 106 sub-registrar offices in the state were able to issue instant property registration documents with the help of this technology.

Other schemes that will benefit from SWAN include, old age pension to 4 million people, transport department offices in 41 districts, complete administration of value-added tax (VAT), e-tendering, e-procurement, online counselling, Lok Vani, on-line declaration of results and faster redressal of grievances.