E-Government Citizen Centric Framework at District Level in India: A Case Study

Introduction

It is widely acknowledged that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are effective tools in bridging service quality gaps and can play important role in accelerating economic growth. Specifically, to realize tangible advantages, E-Government offers big opportunity for government to provide services efficiently, empowerment of people, and to usher in knowledge-based economy. It offers the scope for transformation of apparatus of Government. In the last one decade, E-Government has heralded a new chapter in the public service delivery. Several E-Government projects have been initiated by the state governments across the country in India. The launch of National e-Governance Programme (NeGP), with a specific objective to add one Lakh Common Service Centers (CSCs) in rural areas has provided a fillip to the efforts under E-Government.

Haryana is one of the most progressive states in India. The capital of Haryana is Chandigarh, which is administered as a union territory and is also the capital of Punjab state in India. It has an area of 44,212 Sq. Kms. The state is divided into four divisions for administrative purposes - Ambala, Rohtak, Gurgaon, and Hisar. There are 20 districts, 47 sub-divisions, 67 tehsils, 45 sub-tehsils, and 116 blocks in Haryana. (http://gurgaon.nic.in/edisha.htm).

The objectives of these e-DISHA centers are to provide longer hours of service delivery, easy, improved quality of service, transparent, efficient & effective delivery at the citizens doorsteps, reliable & real-time services, effective dissemination under single roof, reduced delivery and opportunity costs, elimination of ‘touts’ and exploitation, citizen friendly environment, quick redressal of citizen grievances, strengthening the back office operations for timely availability of information, consolidated information for effective decision making, integration of databases of government departments and organizations, and creation of knowledge based jobs in the district. These centers have been established as front-end interfaces of Haryana government departments to provide E-Government services.

The feed back of citizens in terms of evaluating quality of services received at citizen service centers from the Government is important. An understanding of citizens’ perspective of service quality helps the governments to plan and execute E-Government services efficiently and effectively. The objective of this chapter is to develop E-Government service quality framework for Citizen Service Centers named as e-DISHA in Haryana as a case study.