Kerala becomes India’s first ‘total’ e-governed state

Kerala has made history after the Pinarayi Vijayan government declared it as India’s first ‘total e-governed state’, where the delivery of government services would be digitised, transparent, and fast.

The achievement comes decades after Kerala became the first fully-literate state and began its quest to become a fully e-literate society.

“By the term governance what the present government means is total commitment to fulfil the promises it has made to the people. The government and governance are reaching out to the people more and more, he said.

“The service delivery has been made people-oriented and corruption-free and public utilities have become people-friendly. These transformative changes have been felt by people in the last seven years,” the Chief Minister said.

The government will not stop and rest on its laurels and would focus on ensuring that services reach the masses instead of the people having to knock on the doors of departments for the same. “This can be ensured by leveraging new technology, and that is exactly what the government is focusing on,” Vijayan said.

One such “bold step” in that direction was making internet access a citizen’s right by rolling out the KFON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) project, he said and added that it would make access to the internet affordable or free of cost.

He also listed out the other government initiatives — like a single-window portal called e-Sevanam for delivering as many as 900 services — for ushering in e-governance which would soon be extended to taluk-level offices.

“In panchayats, delivery of as many as 250 services has been made online,” the Chief Minister said.

Setting up the country’s first digital university in the state and launch of the digital science park project worth ₹ 1,500 crore were the other major steps taken by the government to bridge the digital divide and bring about total e-governance, he said.

Noting that the total e-governance declaration coincided with the second anniversary of the LDF government, Vijayan said his administration has turned the occasion into an opportunity to unveil a series of pro-people projects including the 100-day programme, instead of seeing it as an occasion for just celebrations.