From delivering groceries and vegetables to disbursements of pensions and the just announced cash benefits to the poor and needy by the Centre, the Common Services Centres (CSCs) have been facilitating it round the clock for the need of the citizens in this hour of immense crisis to battle out the coronavirus scare.
Thousands of its employees and village level entrepreneurs (VLEs) of CSC and CSC executives during the last fortnight sweat it out in calling and helping lakhs of citizens to get install the Government oriented Arogya Setu App which has Covid 19 related information besides alerting individuals their safe or unsafe zone.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his recent statement had urged the citizens to make maximum use of this app and help the stakeholders and country to wage war against the virus.
According to Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the country wide network of about 3,70,000 digital kiosks called the CSC have been very helpful in this acute crisis times, particularly in rural areas. Giving the utility of CSC, the Home Ministry on Wednesday had allowed functioning of the CSCs which has now also taken the task of sewing masks, arranging sanitisers and telemedicine.
CSC is the e-governance initiative of Modi Government and works as a a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by Ravi Shankar Prasad led Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).
The CSC kiosks usually run by a villager (VLEs) at Gram Panchayat levels help in disbursing essential services such as withdrawals of government subsidies sent directly into Aadhaar-linked bank accounts under schemes such as the PM-Kisan.
The CSCs carry out banking-related services and also process transactions through the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS).
CSC CEO Dinesh Tyagi expressed happiness as the CSCs have been meeting upto the needs and expectations of the people even in the lockdown crisis situation.
“We are thankful to the government which bestowed on us with full faith this task of reaching out to all segments. While some of the CSCs could not function initially due to the lockdown provisions but we are thankful to our Minister (Ravi Shankar Prasad) for requesting the Home Ministry to allow all the CSC in the country to function from April 20 as per the circular, directives” Tyagi told The Pioneer.
Tyagi, who now conducts several found of video conference meetings with his staff for smooth functioning, informed that the operational centres have processed 1,00,000 withdrawals through AEPS, totalling transactions worth Rs 13 crore in a single day.
The centres also help in telemedicine, undertaking on an average 400 sessions every day with a total of 10,000 sessions in a month, including free of cost sessions for animals (e-pashu) as well. The tele-law is one area where the CSC is now assisting and advising on the legal needs and aspects of the villagers during the lockdown period during which it has been able to get resolve around 10,000 cases across the country at panchayat level.
Some of the centres, which house units for making female hygiene products, have now turned into making face masks for local residents.
Tyagi said CSCs, which also function as the last-mile connection point for the government’s fibre network BharatNeT, have seen requests for 3,20,000 new fibre to home connections compared to just 50,000 earlier.
The usage of data accessed through WiFi and fibre connections through the centres has also doubled from 2.7 terabytes earlier to 4.9 terabytes per day, informed Tyagi. He said the CSC wi fi chaupal through digi pay systems have become thriving and sustainable for all the information and financial requirements of the rural areas and far flung localities and there have been instances during this lockdown period that several unemployed youth have come forward to associate with the philanthropic cause.
“All our VLEs and CSC staff have been calling citizens to assist then download the very innovative Arogya Setu app created for the Corona fight,” Tyagi, a 1979 batch retired IAS said.