Chandigarh, February 9 - Haryana Government has been awarded by Government of India with the 'Gold Award' owing to the state government’s timely implementation of citizen-centric services under the e-governance project of Antyodaya Saral.

The award was received by Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Project Director, Good Governance Associate to the Chief Minister, at the 23rd National Awards ceremony organized by the Central Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Department (DAR & PG), Government of India, in Mumbai. The Antyodaya Saral project has been selected for the 'Gold Award' in the category of 'Excellence in providing citizen-centric delivery'.

While congratulating the officers, the Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal said that it is a matter of great pride for Haryana that the e-governance initiatives are taken up by the State Government got recognized at the National level. The Chief Minister said that now State Government aims to further re-engineer processes to achieve the aim of Cashless, Paperless, and Faceless service delivery, in order to achieve Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi vision of Digital India.

He said that the Antyodaya Saral Project was launched in the State which has not only helped in curbing corruption, improving efficiency and ensuring hassle-free delivery of services, but has also given Haryana a new identity in the field of Information Technology (IT).

The Project Director, Chief Minister Good Governance Associates, Dr. Rakesh Gupta said that Haryana was always proactive in initiating information technology (IT) projects, which has helped the State to emerge as a premier cyber State in the country. He said that now the State has a target of turning 2.5 crore citizens to e-citizens.

Dr. Rakesh Gupta shared that the project was conceptualized in February 2017 and its implementation began in July 2017. Antyodaya Saral Project involved re-imagining the entire service delivery framework in the State, with citizens at the center of it, and in the process bringing about a fundamental behavioral change in the way the government functions. He said that dedicated efforts have been made in the last few years in this direction.

The key objectives of Antyodaya Saral Project, include making all schemes and services available on an integrated online platform, and establishing state-of-the-art citizen service delivery centers at District, Sub-division and Tehsil Level, furthermore to ensure availability of all schemes and services at Atal Seva Kendra (CSC), and ensuring all schemes and services are delivered to the people of the State in a transparent and time-bound manner.

Sharing the details of the data recorded by the system, Dr. Rakesh Gupta said that every year, around 1 crore applications are received online in Haryana. More than 70 lakh of these are received through the Antyodaya Saral platform. More than 1 lakh queries and grievances regarding the scheme and services are resolved every month by the Antyodaya Saral Helpline (1800-2000-023). More than 15 lakh SMSs are sent to citizens every month to inform the status of applications. On average, departments have got a rating of 4.3 out of 5 for citizen satisfaction from feedback calls made to citizens every month. In the last 2 years, Haryana Government has delivered 88.2 percent of its applications within the stipulated time period notified under the Haryana Right to Service Act, 2014.

He informed that after the implementation of Antyodaya Saral Project, there has been a 15 percent increase in applications received and 16 percent reduction in processing time from mid-2018 to mid-2019 and further positive change is expected in the coming months. Antyodaya Saral Project is replicable across all states as the portal has been developed by the NIC Government of India and NIC Haryana.

He informed that a total of 526 Schemes and Services of 38 departments are available on the Antyodaya Saral online platform. This platform has been built using Service plus, a product of NIC Government of India, which is a unified platform based on multi-tenant architecture for delivering electronic-services to citizens.

Other than making the services available on the online platform, under the project, 115 Government-run Kendras at District Headquarter, Subdivision and Tehsil levels with a standard token management system in use for crowd management and proper facilities were started. Antyodaya Saral platform is also open to more than 6,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) in the State, at the village and ward level.

He informed that the Chief Minister had launched the Antyodaya Saral project for the first time on September 15, 2017, at Digital Haryana Summit. A mega launch was led by him on December 25, 2018, in Karnal when major features of the Antyodaya Saral Project were announced.

Dr. Rakesh Gupta has lauded the efforts of the officers of 38 government departments, the district administration of all 22 districts, NIC Government of India and NIC Haryana for working together over the last 2 years and making the project a success.

He said that to ensure the delivery of the citizen-centric services, resolving the grievances and providing a best-in-class experience for citizens coming to the Kendras at District, Sub-division and Tehsil level, regular review meetings are held at the department and the district level is held every month by the Chief Minister’s office.

He said that this year, around 729 nominations were received by DAR&PG from different parts of the country. Around 50 projects were shortlisted across the six categories of the National Awards for E-Governance. Of these, 10 projects were shortlisted in Category 2: Excellence in providing Citizen-centric Delivery. It included Antyodaya Saral along with projects like Rail Madad by Ministry of Railways Government of India, Doorstep Delivery of Public Services by Delhi Government and The Million Farmers School by Uttar Pradesh Government. Project teams of all of these 10 projects pitched their respective projects to a 15-member jury headed by Additional Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India Mr. V. Srinivas and other key dignitaries from government and academia.