Chief Secretary orders crackdown on CSC overpricing

Srinagar, July 8: To achieve the goal of Digital India by providing seamless online services to the people, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo Monday issued directions to set up new touch points for Common Service Centres (CSCs) in various government offices like Deputy Commissioners’ offices, block development offices, tehsil offices, Social Welfare Department offices, Additional Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) offices, colleges, and universities.

Directions have been issued to all DCs to allocate the spaces in all such offices for setting up new touchpoints.

Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs) of all districts have been nominated as nodal officers to facilitate and accelerate the opening of new touchpoints.

To date, 625 new CSCs have been established so far and 13081 CSCs including 537 PACs and 2160 FPS are active and providing services on the Digi-Seva portal in J&K.

The J&K administration is implementing strict monitoring and regulatory mechanisms to ensure that CSCs adhere to notified rates.

In this regard, regular audits and inspections are being carried out by dedicated divisional-level inspection teams of the IT Department to identify and penalise those engaged in overcharging.

The DCs, who are the chairpersons of District e-Governance Societies (DeGs) have also been asked to ensure strict enforcement of notified rates in their respective districts so that people do not suffer on this account.

Acting strictly on the complaints of overcharging by CSCs, Commissioner Secretary IT Department, Prerna Puri ensured regular surprise inspections of various CSCs across J&K to cross-check and verify their adherence to government-notified rates.

The inspection teams supervised by Additional Secretary IT Department, Aijaz Qaiser were sent to district Rajouri in Jammu division and Pulwama in Kashmir division.

During the surprise checks, 31 CSCs of Rajouri district and 49 CSCs of Pulwama were inspected.

The inspection teams have recommended the cancellation of the licenses of seven CSCs – three in the Jammu division and four CSCs in the Kashmir division.

The IT Department has notified rates to avail of various online services which envisage Rs 50 per service for the government to the citizen services and Rs 75 for the government to the business services.

Acting on certain complaints of overcharging, 664 CSC licenses have been cancelled in the past year (624 in the financial year 2023-24 and 40 in this current financial year 2024-25).

Meanwhile, Vice President CSC-SPV J&K has been directed to ensure that the notified rates are prominently displayed at a conspicuous place in each CSC sensitising all Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) regarding notified rates.

It has also been directed to ensure the availability of VLEs by developing a properly certified mechanism so that people can avail seamless online services.