The Hindu
A devotee offers prayers at the Ganga in Allahabad. —File photo: Brijesh Jaiswal
E-commerce platform to be tapped to bring pure water from Rishikesh, Haridwar.
Doesn’t matter if you live hundreds of miles away from
the Ganga: the postal department might soon deliver water from the river
— considered holy by the Hindus — to your doorstep, thanks to the
initiative of the Centre.
“I used to get several
requests on whether the vast network of the posts can be used to get
Ganga Jal. I have directed the Department of Posts to utilise e-commerce
platform so that pure Ganga Jal from Haridwar and Rishikesh can be
provided to the people. They have assured me that they will take
proactive step to address the cultural needs of the people of India,”
Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told a news
conference on Monday.
E-governance app
During
the conference, called to highlight the achievements of his Ministry
during the past two years, Mr. Prasad also said the government was
working on a single mobile application through which citizens would be
able to access over 1,000 e-governance services provided by the Centre,
State governments as well as local authorities. The new application
UMANG — short for Unified Mobile App for New-age Governa-nce — will be
available in 12 Indian languages, besides English.
“This application will be a game changer... a common mobile application for all government services,” the Minister said. Smartphones for postmen
He
also said that by March 2017, all postmen in urban centres will be
given smartphones, while those in around 1.3 lakh rural post offices
will be given handheld devices.
“About 4,000 handheld devices have already been given. It will help in financial inclusion,” the Minister said.
