Srinagar, Feb 22: Five Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) from J&K, who run Khidmat Centers established by J&K Bank, were felicitated by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India at the 14th National Conference on e-governance held in Aurangabad on Feb 10-11.
 The five entrepreneurs from J&K are among the 25 VLEs short-listed on the basis of their country-wide performance for felicitation by the Department.
 Maharashtra Governor K Shankaranarayanan inaugurated the Conference attended by Union Minister of State for Public Grievances, Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, V. Narayansami and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.
 The theme of the Conference for the year was `Rural e-Service Delivery Status and Challenges’ with an aim  at understanding the introduction and penetration of e-Governance in rural India and providing Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICT) solutions to improve the delivery and accessibility of e-Services.
 The Conference provided a national forum for leaders and representatives of government, civil society, industry and academicians to exchange ideas, experiences and best practices in implementation of e-Governance projects.
 The five shortlisted VLEs from J&K included Ishfaq-ur-Rehman from Khidmat Centre, Nowgam Anantnag, Mohammad Abbas from Khidmat Centre, Hakura Badasgam, Anantnag, Mushtaq Ahmed Lone from Khidmat Centre Kangan Ganderbal, Ritu kumari from Jourian Khidmat Centre Jammu and Rakesh Khajuria Khidmat Centre Patti, Samba.
 Notably J&K Bank through an agreement with IT Department, J&K Govt. is the Service Centre Agency (SCA) for setting up of 1109 common Service Centers (Khidmat Centers) in J&K under the National e-governance programme of Government of India. J&K Bank has so far established around 475 such centers throughout the state which are providing number of business related e-services to the people in rural areas.
 The VLEs were felicitated with monetary reward of Rupees Ten thousand each and were also reimbursed by DIT for the costs incurred on their travel and stay at Aurangabad, the Bank in a statement said.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST