Shillong Declaration: Bid to Ease Citizens’ Experience with Government Services

Staff Correspondent

Shillong: The two-day 22nd edition of the National Conference on e-Governance held in Shillong concluded here on Friday with a historic ‘Shillong Declaration’ outlining the future trajectory the country would take in terms of e-Governance. The 10- point declaration is an outcome of a commitment made at the inaugural session the previous day and was framed after two days of intensive deliberations among senior officials, experts and representatives of 28 States and all Union Territories.

It may be mentioned here that the 10 point– ‘Shillong Declaration’ resolved that the Government of India and State Governments would collaborate to improve the citizen’s experience with government services by promoting timely implementation of India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA) and implementing a single sign-on for interoperability and integration among e-Government applications throughout the country, to consolidate the plethora of successful State level e-Governance projects and domain-based projects with a focus to replicate them as a common application software with configurable features.

This will ensure improvement in ease of living and ease of doing business by making a big shift in the role of government from service provider to service enabler. Such steps where multiple competitive applications can be developed, can go a long way to improve connectivity in the northeastern States by addressing the issues and challenges of telecommunications connectivity at the grassroots level. The meet also discussed formulation and implementation of a comprehensive telecom development plan, to take steps to enhance the activities of Electronics Sector Skill Council in northeastern States and explore the possibility for opening an electronics skill centre in Shillong, to promote use of e-Office and move towards less paper State Secretariats in the North-Eastern States and in the district level offices.

In this respect, a valedictory function was held which was addressed by PS Thangkhiew, Meghalaya Chief Secretary, KV Eapen, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAPRG), V Srinivas, Additional Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAPRG), Government of India and RV Suchiang, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Meghalaya in the presence of senior government officials drawn from Central, State Governments and Union Territories besides delegates and other representatives of private enterprises.

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