Bengal ropes in IIT-K for e-governance project

West Bengal government on Friday said it has roped in Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, to prepare a vision document and roadmap for effective implementation of e-governance schemes.

"We have asked IIT, Kharagpur to chalk out a roadmap and a vision document for effective implementation of e-governance schemes to reach the masses and truely benefit the grass-root level," state IT and Environment Minister Manab Mukherjee said in Kolkata.

He said the institute would prepare the vision document for 2005-10 focusing on the aspirations and needs of the masses, particularly the rural populace.

Addressing a seminar on 'India e-governance', Mukherjee said the government was planning to network all the 3,354 village panchayats in West Bengal within the next three years for providing e-governance services.

Sujoy Ghosh of IIT (K), a consultant to the state on the networking project, said: "In view of physical resource constraints, the vision should be to make the geographical units like villages, blocks, towns and cities as independent as possible with low external physical input and high information and knowledge input".