*Funds sanctioned by GoI remain unutilized
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 27: Mooted three years back, the much talked about digitization of entire record of Jammu Development Authority (JDA) has yet not become reality mainly because of lack of interest from the top officers of the Housing and Urban Development Department, who always remain slack on the steps aimed at ensuring transparency in the functioning of its different wings.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in the year 2012, the Housing and Urban Development Department had advised Jammu Development Authority to scan/digitize all the office records as per the guidelines and procedures recommended by the Information Technology Department.
However, it took more than two years to the Housing and Urban Development Department to take final decision with regard to steps to be followed in this direction, sources said while disclosing that on February 25, 2014, it was decided that Information Technology Department through its e-governance agency (JaKeGA) would develop required applications for JDA and same will be hosted in State Data Center besides JaKeGA will develop the application based on the requirements of Jammu Development Authority through outsourcing in a suitable manner.
The matter was also discussed in the Contract Committee of JDA on March 1, 2014 and it was decided that in the first instance the digitization exercise will be taken up for commercial assets of JDA comprising of approximately 4000 files and thereafter the files pertaining to the residential assets will be taken up.
The whole project was conceived for digitization of files, implementation of paperless office software application and implementation of software application and portal for electronic service delivery, sources informed.
Through this initiative, Jammu Development Authority intended to deliver several services related to allotment and transfer of its assets to the citizen electronically as per the provisions of the IT Act, 2000 and J&K Electric Service Delivery (ESD) Rules, 2013. The services, which were proposed to be brought under this system, included information about outstanding dues and receipt of on-line payments through Credit/Debit cards and net banking, allotment of assets, transfer of assets, mortgage of assets and cancellation/alternate offers etc.
It was proposed that these services would be provided as end-to-end electronic services and under this system, whole workflow including the examination and approval process will happen digitally at the backend.
However, no substantial progress has been made in this direction during the past three years, sources regretted. “What to talk of other aspects of the project even digitization of entire record of Jammu Development Authority has yet not become reality till date despite the fact that huge amount was sanctioned by the Government of India for this project”, they added.
“The non-serious approach towards implementation of this project clearly indicates that Housing and Urban Development Department, which has administrative control over Jammu Development Authority, doesn’t want to bring transparency, which is of utmost importance in this organization”, sources said, adding “in the absence of transparency, the touts are having heyday in Jammu Development Authority”.
When contacted, Vice-Chairperson of Jammu Development Authority, Mubarak Singh confirmed that much progress has not been made in this direction. “The entire exercise is to be conducted by JaKeGA and they have floated the tenders for outsourcing the activity”, he said.
He, however, expressed inability about the time-frame within which entire project would become reality. At the same time, the Vice-Chairperson said, “this project is of vital importance for transparency in the functioning of the JDA as well as to provide hassle free services to the people”.
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