Public Service Delivery and Good Governance a Study of E District Project in Cooch Behar District of West Bengal

Abstract

The revolutionary nature of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is newlinerapidly changing every aspect of society and mode of governance in the 21st century. newlinePolicy-makers are increasingly focusing on e-governance as a vehicle to achieve good newlinegovernance. E-governance simply means the use of information and communication newlinetechnology in delivering government services. It is the exchange of information, newlinecommunication transactions, integration of various systems and services between newlinegovernment to citizen, government to business as well as back-office processes and newlineinteractions within the entire government framework at National, State, and local levels. newlineMoreover, the delivery of services to citizens is considered a primary function of the newlinegovernment; the advances in information technology have added the impetus to the newlineservices rendered by the government. Through the use of information and newlinecommunication technology government can deliver a package of efficiency, time newlinebounding, cost-effective and client-oriented service to the citizens. Hence, the newlineGovernment of India has taken a lot of e-governance initiatives in various sectors to newlinemake government administration more transparent, faster, accountable, and more newlineresponsive to meet the needs or requirements of common citizens. Like the Central newlineGovernment of India (GoI) and other State Governments, the Government of West newlineBengal (GoWB) also moving at a good speed for implementing different e-government newlineprojects in various sectors of governance. In West Bengal few mission mode projects newlinefrom GoI and a few projects from GoWB already have been implemented, few projects newlineare in operation and serving common citizens, business groups, and government newlineemployees. The present study is concerned with one of the most remarkable mission newlinemode projects named e-District. newline~ iv ~ newlineThe e-District project is one of the core elements of the National e-Governance Plan newline(NeGP), whose main aim is to make all public services accessible to the common man in newlinehis locality, through common service delivery