Laptops for all village officers soon

Kochi: The Kerala State Information Technology Mission has launched a project to provide laptops to all village officers in the state.

The project, aimed at stepping up the e-governance programme and speeding up work at village offices, will see laptops being given to 1,450 village officers in Kerala.

IT Mission State director Bala Kiran said the laptops would help village officers give digital signatures even on the go.

“The tendering procedures are almost complete. Laptops in the second phase will also help the officers significantly. For example, a Kasargode native working in Thiruvanatha-puram can ask for a certificate from his village office over the internet. In return, the village officer can give him the respective certificate with digital signatures from Kasargode,” he said.

The Mission’s tender for laptops with a three-year warranty, was invited from original equipment manufacturers and their national distributors and dealers.

“The e-district project was first rolled out as a pilot programme in Kannur and Palakkad during December, 2010 and February, 2011. As a continuation of the grand success of the project, the Government had offered certain key services to around 1,600 village offices and 63 taluk offices. A few more offices too need to be provided laptops. The Government is also in the process of adding more services such as RTI, redressal of public grievances and revenue court cases, which require additional laptops for efficient service delivery”, the IT Mission official said.