CSCs

About the Scheme

CSCs are envisioned as the front-end delivery points for Government, private and social sector services to rural citizens of India.

The CSC is a strategic cornerstone of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), as part of its commitment in the National Common Minimum Programme to introduce e-governance on a massive scale.The CSCs would provide high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services, in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services. A highlight of the CSCs is that it will offer web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills.

The Scheme creates a conducive environment for the private sector and NGOs to play an active role in implementation of the CSC Scheme, thereby becoming a partner of the government in the development of rural India. The PPP model of the CSC scheme envisages a 3-tier structure consisting of the CSC operator (called Village Level Entrepreneur or VLE) the Service Centre Agency (SCA), that will be responsible for a division of 500-1000 CSCs and a State Designated Agency (SDA) identified by the State Government responsible for managing the implementation over the entire State.

CSCs in Manipur

The CSC Scheme in Manipur was implemented in May 2008 by appointing single SCA viz, Zoom Developers. As on August 2011, 360 CSCs have been set up out of 399 CSCs in the State. The State Government had already set up 39 Community Information Centres (CICs) which were integrated with the CSC Scheme. The G2C services are yet to be delivered through the CSCs and the SCA has activated few B2C services which are being delivered through the CSCs like Financial Inclusion, Railway/Air Ticket Booking Agency, and Insurance Selling etc.

Common Services Centre (CSCs) Scheme under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) PHASE-I:

The CSC Scheme was approved by the Government of India in September 2006 under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which aimed for the establishment of one lakh ICT enabled front-end service delivery outlets, equitably spreading across rural India in the ratio of one CSC per six villages, thereby covering all six lakh villages. CSCs were envisaged as assisted front end ICT (Information and Communication Technology) enabled centres for delivery of various G2C (Government to Citizen) and other B2C (Business to Citizen) services to the citizens.

During the First Phase of CSC, which began its way out in 2009 there were 83 CSCs and 8 CICs established in the District wherein after the implementation of CSC 2.0 since November 2015, the total number of CSCs rose to 150 where 90 CSCs are newly opened. Presently there are 60 CSCs active in the district. The previous CSCs and CICs have faced lots of hardship due to cancellation of VSAT contract on the 31st March, 2017 especially with net connectivity problem as 60 Per cent of CSCs lies in the hill/mountainous region where even mobile network is not available.

As on date (31-August-2016), the total number of CSCs operational across the District is 91, which includes 8 CICs and 83 CSCs but only 2 CSCs namely Sumchinvum (Singngat Block) and Rengkai (Churachandpur Block) were found ACTIVE where the other 89 were INACTIVE. Details can be shown as under:

CSC 2.0 UNDER DIGITAL INDIA (PHASE-II):

CSC 2.0 – “A Way Forward” approved in August 2015 under Digital India Program aims to establish self sustaining network of 2.5 lakhs CSCs at Gram Panchayat (GP) level under Digital India- Pillar 3-Public Internet Access Program – National Rural Internet Mission and deliver various citizen centric services. It is being implemented by CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. (CSC-SPV). The project implementation duration is 4 years. CSC 2.0 model is envisaged as transaction based and service delivery based model, delivering a large bouquet of e-services through a single delivery platform, which would increase the sustainability of the CSCs across the country. The two District Managers organized VLE/CSC meeting and Orientation Programme for 12 times during the current financial year 2016-17. Most of the Phase I CSCs are traceless, we focus on the new applicants under CSC 2.0 but had visited 50 CSCs in Phase I. As the geographical areas of Churachandpur District is large, vast, terrain and a poor road connectivity, visiting of CSCs in Phase I was a big challenge with no internet connectivity especially post VSAT was withdrawn wef 1st April, 2017 from CSC 2.0 Project, which in turn leads to closing of their center as there are no means to survive without internet connection. This compels us to focus only the town areas where various network such as Airtel, BSNL, Aircel, Jio Reliance, Idea etc can be assess via Dongle kit. This is the reason behind most VLEs who have the zeal to work shifted their original centre to new places where their Geotagging does not match with in search of network where internet connectivity is available.

Following are some of the key achievements of CSCs in Churachandpur District from 19th August, 2016 to 31st December, 2017 can be shown as: