Introduction

The Information Technology revolution marks a generation change in scientific invention and technology. In the information age technology has impacted human life like never before by making communication easy and affordable.

The scheme of Community Information Centres (CICs) has been implemented in the North East States in response to the Prime Minister’s call for freedom from distance. This project has been implemented successfully and has generated tremendous response from the people of the northeastern region. In the meanwhile, there has been similar demand from other states for extending this scheme to these states.

The Community Information Centre is a combination of a PC based citizen kiosk with content enabling citizen centric services, e-governance, e-learning and e-commerce. It enables access to databases containing wide range of information regarding agricultural marketing, disaster management, employment opportunities, public health etc. The CICs are supported by effective connectivity.

The outcomes of Community Information Centres are:

ICT infrastructure at block level
Web access and internet services such as e-mail
Real time Market access and e-commerce
Access to socio-economic databases
E-learning (computer aided learning processes) and e-education
Internet connectivity to schools, colleges and NGOs
E-medicine, E- consulting, Telemedicine, Tele-health internet connectivity to local hospitals
E-governance applications, government to citizen (citizen centric) services
Weather information
Electronic deliveries of newspapers at remote locations
IT awareness among local people
Computer training programmes
E-entertainment, E-music and E-cinema
Tender notification and online response to E-procurement requests
E-employment notification and online responses
Grievance redressal

Difficult geographical terrain and lack of infrastructure are a barrier to access for the people of Jammu & Kashmir to modern ICT based information support. The basic needs of citizens such as information, education, entertainment and health services can be addressed through the establishment of Community Information Centres. The CIC Network will serve the purpose of effective connectivity backbone that will provide a platform for e-governance, e-learning and other IT enabled services.

 The CIC Project envisages application of Information Technology to deliver services to citizens such as e-governance, e-learning, Telemedicine etc. The CICs will work as an interface between public and government and provide the citizens easier access to socio-economic databases. The Community Information Centres are provided with state of the art equipment such as computers, printers, Webcam etc and an effective connectivity.

In order to effectively utilise the infrastructure available at these CICs suitable content is needed. This content should be relevant to local needs of the people of the state. Also a suitable back end capacity in the state government machinery is required in order to implement effective Citizen-centric services through CICs. To facilitate effective G2C services creation of databases containing wide range of information is essential. Also different types of forms are to be digitized to facilitate on-line applications and issuance of certificates etc.

The establishment of CICs has been envisaged as a means to use the benefits of Information Technology (IT) particularly in the remote areas of the District. Government of India (GOI) has sanctioned a scheme for setting up of CICs in all blocks in J&K State. The scheme intends to promote Information Technology in rural and remote areas of the State. This would provide a major opportunity to the people living in remote areas to have access to information using the Internet as well as to interact with the Government apparatus directly using Information Technology.

Under this project, a total of Nineteen(19) CICs are to be established in District Doda (one in each block) , which have been divided into two Phases. Under Phase-I seven(7) CICs have already been established in the District and the process of establishment of remaining Twelve(12) CICs in the District is in progress.

The Blocks were CICs have been established under Phase-I are::

Banihal, Ramban, Ghat, Bhadarwah, Gandoh, Kishtwar and Chatroo

The blocks which are covered in Phase-II are::

Ramsoo, Assar, Marmat, Thathri, Gundana, Drabshalla, Bhagwah, Padder, Nagseni, Marwah, Warwan and Dachan