Agartala/Itanagar, The central government has advised to all the eight northeastern states to set up e-office in a fixed time and all technical and financial support to achieve the e-office mission to be implemented right from civil secretariat to district level in all the states would be provided by the centre, officials said on Saturday.

Information Technology Department officials in Agartala and Itanagar said that union DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) Minister Jitendra Singh while addressing a workshop through webinar (videoconferencing) on Friday said that the progress of e-office in 75 Central Ministries and Departments enabled the creation of a digital central secretariat which ensured that work from home was possible in the COVID-19 lockdown period.

"The implementation of e-office in state secretariats of northeastern states would result in creation of paperless state secretariats in a time bound manner where officers would be empowered with virtual private networks, digital signature certificates and promote less contact governance," he said.

Singh said that the e-office project would fulfil the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "Minimum Government, Maximum Governance" and would ensure ease of administration, transparency and citizen-centric delivery mechanism.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Secretary K.Shivaji while addressing the workshop said that the entire northeastern region has the natural advantage of information technology savvy youth power to implement the e-office in an effective manner.

DoNER Ministry Secretary Inder Jit Singh said that his ministry is the first in the government of India to implement 100 per cent e-office in processing of files.

The workshop on e-office for northeastern states was attended by Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim and Meghalaya and the IT Ministers of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, and Tripura. Chief Secretaries and senior officials of NE states have also attended the workshop.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said that by the year 2022, all offices of the state government including those in the districts would start functioning as e-offices.

According to an official statement, welcoming the initiative of the DoNER Ministry to push e-office in the northeast, Khandu asserted that it is the only way out to curb corruption and red-tapism in governance.