The government is going to digitise a hundred more union councils to facilitate dissemination of information and delivery of government services.
Under the 'Empowering rural communities: reaching the unreached' project, 100 union information and service centres will be set up. The project is now waiting for government approval.
The Bangladesh Computer Council's senior system analyst Tarique M Barkatullah said that the project would help to establish a digital Bangladesh and make government information available at the grass roots.
Tarique said that the centres would try to reach out remote areas such as coastal belt, Chittagong Hill Tracts, hoars, Sundarban forest, areas in the north vulnerable to monga and river erosion.
'The centres will provide services such as downloading of government forms, government notices and announcements, addresses and services of local government entities, and information on immigration, passport, visas, citizenship certificates, market price, public examination results and birth and death registration,' he said.
He also said that the centres would also provide commercial services such as internet, e-mail, video conferencing, mobile service and computer training. 'Some of the centres, in off-grid areas, will run on solar power.'
Tarique said that each of the 100 union centres would have two local officials to run the centres while one of them would be female.
He said that each of the centres would be given two laptops, a printer, a scanner, a webcam and internet connection.
He said that among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation's members, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal jointly proposed the project.
The officer said that the SAARC Development Fund Secretariat on March 24 had approved the project proposal with a total budget of $7,938,335.
'The project proposal submitted to the government through the science and ICT ministry on April 12,' he said, adding that the project would be implemented in public-private partnership.
He said that after the government approval, the project budget would be released and a tender would be floated to be followed by manpower appointment.
'We will float the tender in May,' he added.
On November 11, 2010, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, launched UISCs in 4,501 unions to provide people with online and offline facilities at the centres for a nominal price.
Source: New Age
