'Make e-governance accessible to rural India'

New Delhi, Aug 2: To make e-governance more accessible to rural India, there is a need to develop hardware appliances at the grass root level, according to IT experts.

''It also become imperative to bring a change in the mind set of people sitting behind the technology for successful implementation of e-governance in the country,'' IT and e-governance experts from the government and private sector suggested during a four-day meet of e-governance and digital Learning 'eIndia 2007'.

The experts said there have been unanimous on one point that it is mostly the men behind the technology and their mind set which has defeated the purpose of transparency and e-governance.

e-governance offers all services to the citizens including birth and death certificates, ration card, land records, driving license and passport by means of internet.

''Common people are afraid to visit government offices as the staff in these offices is most of the time non co-operative.

This is the major hindrance in implementing the successful e-governance, which is a step towards giving power to people,'' Government of India Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah said.

He said that by the end of year 2008, most of the states will implement accepting of the Right To Information (RTI) applications online and one need not visit any government office to seek information under RTI Act.

UNI