J&K Informatics Service on NIC pattern soon

Committee to draft proposal in 3 months
Keeping in tune with major strides made the world over in use of Information Technology (IT), the government today decided to constitute J&K Informatics Service (JKIS) in the State, on the pattern of National Informatics Centres (NIC) across the country. 
This was stated in the first meeting of Board of Governors of Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA ), which was chaired by Chief Secretary, Mr. S. S. Kapur, here today.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mr. Omar Abdullah, immediately after assuming power, had on January 14, 2009 moved at top speed to set up JaKeGA with an empowered Board of Directors headed by the Chief Secretary.  
Today’s meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner, Planning and Development, Mr. S.L. Bhat, Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Mr. Anil Goswami, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Dr. Arun Kumar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr. Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Principal Secretary, Law, Mr. Akhtar Hussain Kochak, Commissioner/Secretary, Power, Mr. S .K. Naik, Commissioner/Secretary, Roads and Buildings, Mr. Mehboob Iqbal and Director, DOEACC, Dr. A.H. Moon.
It was decided in the meeting that a Committee headed by Financial Commissioner, Planning and Development, with Principal Secretary, IT and Principal Secretary, Law, as Members will draft the proposal of the JKIS within three months. The Draft Proposal for JKIS will be placed on the website of IT Department for eliciting comments and suggestion from the general public.
The meeting was informed that the Central government has been liberal in supporting JaKeGA and has already released over Rs. 15 crore for the purpose. It was also stated that the released outlay is meant for establishing projects as Capacity Building, State Data Centres, Service Centres, State Services Delivery Gateway and State-Wide Areas Network. It was given out in the meeting that four consultants from Price Water House Coopers have already been deployed to assist JaKeGA for capacity building besides an ace private player in the field, Wipro, has been engaged by the department for preparing e-governance, capacity building roadmap and DPR for State Data Centre.
Mr. Kapur, while speaking on the occasion, asked for exploring every possibility so that e-governance reaches every part of the State and facilities get extended on priority in revenue-related matters, health, consumer affairs and municipalities so that people get firsthand information of day-to-day grievances. He said public-private partnership should also be encouraged to further the benefits of e-governance and stressed the need for involving all Administrative Departments to promote e-governance in their functioning.
Modelled on similar agencies working in many progressive States like Karnataka and Punjab, JaKeGA has been registered as a Society. This is supposed to provide the Agency with much-needed flexibility to implement IT-related projects throughout the State and to receive grants directly from the Central government and other donor agencies.  
JaKeGA shall also take the single point responsibility for procuring all types of IT resources and services like hardware, power, printing and networking peripherals for government agencies which will help in streamlining IT-related activities of all departments and help save time and money