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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's Akshaya centres, which
began as facilitators for e-literacy programmes, were Thursday
legally notified as service centres - a first for any state in
India.
The announcement was made by Ajay Kumar, principal secretary of
IT, while inaugurating the Akshaya founding day at a function held
in Technopark.
"Today Akshaya has grown from being a facilitator for e-literacy
programme to a facilitator of government to citizen (G2C)
services. This is a very big responsibility shouldered by the
2000-odd entrepreneurs across the state," he said.
The growth of Akshaya in the past eight years has triggered Kerala
government to recognise the support they are providing.
Originating as an initiative to address the backwardness of
Malappuram district, Akshaya was conceived by the Kerala State
Information Technology Mission to bring the benefits of this
technology to the entire population of the State.
Over the years, over 2,000 centres were opened across the state
with at least two centres (e-kendra) in every village panchayat.
Each e-kendra, set up within two to three km of every household,
meets the requirements of around 1,000-3,000 families to make
available the power of networking and connectivity to common man.
Apart from e-literacy educational programmes, with classes on how
to handle a computer, the centres also offer the e-payment
platform, covering utility bills like electricity, water,
telephone bills and even university fees, besides booking railway
tickets and even filing of sales tax returns by traders.
Korath V. Mathew, director of Akshaya, said in the past eight
years Akshaya has grown in network presence, competence,
credibility, and reliability.
"Our entrepreneurs are task oriented, extremely flexible and
scalable while operating within the limits of government rules. We
commit to deliver services closer to the hearts of the citizens
and strive to bring efficiency and transparency in the government
service delivery," he said.
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