Badal writes to PM, wants Punjab to be included in 'Digital India' programme

Chandigarh, Feb 25 :Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to include the state in the country's flagship 'Digital India' programme.

Badal today urged the Prime Minister to fund the state government's ambitious programme for establishing 2,174 Unified Citizen Service Delivery Centres at a cost of nearly Rs 550 crore under integrated approach towards e-Governance, according to an official statement.

The Digital India programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Badal shared his view with the former saying Punjab is emerging as one of the leaders in implementation of e-Governance initiatives in every sphere of governance in order to bring paradigm shift in citizen service delivery and Government functioning.

The state has been a front-runner in implementing various Mission Mode Projects under National e-Governance Plan-e-District, State Service Delivery Gateway, State Wide Area Network and State Data Centre, the statement said.

In order to provide broadband connectivity to more than 12,000 Gram Panchayats of the state under National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) Project, Punjab has already approved free Right of Way to implement the project in the state at a faster pace, the Chief Minister said in his letter.

PTI