Detailed reports sought from IT Deptt, GAD
*Slack employees to be shifted to other assignments
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 9: Taking serious note of low disposal of e-office files in the Administrative Departments as well as offices of the Head of the Department (HoD) and Deputy Commissioners, the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has sought detailed report in this regard from the Information Technology Department and General Administration Department.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that issue of e-office coverage and functional status came up for discussion in a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta few days back and Information Technology Department apprised about the disposal of e-office files by the Administrative Departments as well as HoD offices.
“The data compiled indicated that the number of e-office files disposed off in few Head of the Department offices including Deputy Commissioner offices is not optimal”, sources said quoting an official document, adding the Chief Secretary has taken serious note of this slackness on the part of the concerned officers.
Accordingly, the Chief Secretary has directed the Commissioner Secretary, Information Technology Department to ascertain the reasons for this and submit a detailed report in the matter. Moreover, he has reiterated his earlier directions that all services have to be provided in online mode.
About disposal of files in the Administrative Departments, the Chief Secretary asked the Administrative Secretary, General Administration Department to analyze the reasons for low number of disposal of files. “Employees who are found to have handled less than 100 files in six-months may be shifted to other suitable assignments”, sources said quoting the direction of the Chief Secretary.
Moreover, the Chief Secretary has directed the Commissioner Secretary, Information Technology Department to furnish these reports regularly on weekly basis (every Monday) to his office and the concerned Administrative Departments.
“The implementation of e-office is aimed at bringing great deal of efficiency in the overall working and disposal of Government business in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as such Government doesn’t want to spare anyone who creates hurdles in achieving these objectives at any level in the administration”, sources said, adding “weekly reports regarding disposal of e-office files will help the Government in analyzing how seriously the employees are working and accordingly action will be taken against them”.
Moreover, slackness in the disposal of e-office files at Administrative Departments and offices of HoDs and Deputy Commissioners cannot be tolerated especially when Government has already decided to extend e-office up to Tehsil level in order to make the officials accountable at the lowest level in the administration and check their efficiency, sources further said.
As already reported, a committee comprising State Informatics Officer, NIC J&K or his representative, representative from NIC Delhi, Technical Officer of the Information Technology Department, Project Manager, Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA), Data Centre Operator and Analyst-Information Technology in JaKeGA has been constituted with the direction to frame the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for extension of e-office up to Tehsil level.
The e-office and e-files have already eliminated the requirement of sending truckloads of physical files from one department to another facilitating simultaneous functioning of Civil Secretariats at both Jammu and Srinagar profoundly making the system faster, substantially reducing the overhead costs and saving huge money of the exchequer.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary has directed the Administrative Secretaries to have the online services pertaining to the departments reviewed with respect of volume and quality and institute mechanism to monitor online services. Besides, it has been reiterated that the General Administration Department should constitute Appellate Level-II for Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) at the earliest.
The Chief Secretary has also directed the IT Department to take steps to expedite the saturation of 4G services in the UT while as General Administration Department has been told to carry out manpower audit and constitute a committee to have the same monitored.
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