Common Service Centres to resume work after April 20

Based on the recent guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency had issued an order to all the District Collectors and officials concerned that the CSCs will resume their function after April 20.

“Due to COVID-19, some of the CSCs were shut down initially till Mach 30 and then extended till May 3, but in the guidelines issued by the MHA on April 15, it was mentioned that CSCs can be operated after April 20,”, said an order issued by Commissionarate  of TNeGA. In the wake of rapid spread of COVID19, the Central government announced lockdown till April 14 and later extended till May 3. However, when the issue of livelihood in rural areas was raised, the MHA issued guidelines relaxing norms for industries functioning in rural areas. One important relaxation in the guidelines issued by the MHA is giving permission for CSCs in rural areas to function.

The CSCs in Tamil Nadu are IT-enabled services offering variety of government services ranging from banking to agriculture and application of various certificates including community certificates and Aadhaar cards at an affordable cost. Mobile, electricity and other government bills can be paid in the CSCs.

After the closure of CSCs in rural areas the delivery of government services were hit and after receiving demands from various sectors the central government accorded permission for CSCs to resume their work.

TNeGA said that before opening the CSCs all safety precautionary measures should be taken and the CSCs should be sanitised completely. The district administration and other competent authorities were asked to ensure that social distancing is followed while providing service to rural people.