Haryana becomes first state to implement SWAN

Chandigarh, Feb 5 (UNI) Haryana today became the first state in the country to implement State Wide Area Network (SWAN) with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda inaugurating the network, called "ADHAAR".

The network under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) launched at the State Network Management Center here today has given a new meaning to citizen-friendly public services, said Mr Hooda, who also had a video conferencing session with the Deputy Commissioners of various districts.

The districts of Bhiwani, Yamunnagar, Karnal, Ambala, Mewat, Sonepat, Panchkula, Rohtak, Panipat, Jhajjar, Kurukshetra and Sirsa were connected with Adhaar.

While speaking to the Deputy Commissiners, Mr Hooda said, "Our Government is creating state of the art infrastructure to provide the benefits of innovative technology and improve efficiency and productivity. The launch of SWAN today is one major step towards this direction and its success would depend on its efficient use.'' He urged the DCs to spearhead the movement of taking government services to the door step of the citizens and stressed their role in ensuring that the district level offices of all departments made full use of the infrastructure.

Mr Hooda also released a logo of National Conferene on E-Governance to be hosted by Haryana on February 7 and 8 at Panchkula.

Speaking on the occasion, Haryana Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, electronics and Information Technology, P K Chaudhery said that Haryana had already improved its national ranking in e-readiness by six notches to reach 9th position from 15th in the last two years as per the e-Readiness Assessment Report.

Haryana finds a place among Level-1 states in the implementation of core infrastructure projects such as the SWAN network, he said.

Special Secretary IT-cum-Managing Director HARTRON, Mr V S Kundu, said 280 offices of departments like Finance, Revenue, Transport, Local Bodies, Panchayats and Excise and Taxation have also been covered under the first phase of ADHAAR network.

The facilities to be made available under the network included data transfer, on-line applications, voice over IP telephony, video conferencing and e-mail.

In Phase-II of ADHAAR more offices like Agriculture, Education, Industry, Food and Supplies, Woman and Child Development, Social Justice and Empowerment as well as Jails and Courts are being connected on ADHAAR. Further, video conferencing facilities are also being extended to District Jails and Courts of Haryana.

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