Long back in mid 1980’s the then Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi had floated the idea of India going digital. People thought it was only a dream because they were not at all conversant with the great invention of computer science. By that time European countries had already taken to digitalization and were obtaining wonderful results. In our country, however, we were somewhat late in picking up the thread wherefrom we could press computer science into administrative services. Fortunately, with the passage of time and great interest shown by Late Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, our computer industry made marvelous development. Now, we are at an advanced stage of digital and computer science and even President Obama of the US has become apprehensive of Indian computer and digitalization expertise and ability of surpassing the rest of the world.
In this background, when support and facility are easily available at home turf, it is unfortunate that our State is not able to get the vital cabinet record stored in electronic format for the guidance of future generations.
Way back in 2011, the Chief Minister had instructed concerned authorities to initiate digitization of important Cabinet proceedings and store them in computer so that it could be retrieved whenever needed. The idea of digitization received increased importance when a big chunk of official record was gutted in a fire in the Annex at the Central Secretariat in Srinagar. But strangely, not much attention has been paid to the programme and hence it has got mired in impasse.
We are vociferously talking about transparency and accessibility. The two aspects are closely linked to the Right to Information. People have a right to know what decisions are made at the highest level and how these affect their life, economy and well being. The Government allocated forty lac rupees as the seed money to begin the task of digitization. Importance of storing Cabinet records in electronic format has been recognized by the GAD in its Result Framework Document 2013-14. The process should have begun long back and culminated by March 2014. But, actually the project is delayed for one reason or the other and has not materialized so far which speaks of slackness of concerned functionaries in the Government.
Further, in a meeting presided over by the Chief Minister and attended by top bureaucratic section as well as IT cadres, it was decided that the Departments would allocate 1.5 per cent of their annual outlay for digitization work. Actually the idea of 1.5 per cent allocation was mooted way back in 2011. But the idea has never been translated into practice.
Most of the administration of any State is run on taking cue from precedence either locally or from other states. As we are moving into ultra modern times where science and technology have the prime position, it is quite important that we keep pace with the times. There are not serious bottlenecks that cannot be surmounted. This is what we have come to conclude after studying and analyzing existing situation. The Chief Minister is computer savvy and his support is there in more than desired measure. The budget allocations have also been worked out by obtaining the consent of the departmental heads. Therefore, we don’t find any big hurdle in the way of digitization of the large Cabinet record said to be to the tune of 4 lac pieces. The question of e-governance is not to be restricted to the cabinet records only. We would propose that the entire administration should opt for e-governance even at tehsil and panchayat levels. That would really mean that the purpose of the Right to Information Act has been achieved in letter and in spirit in our State. Full introduction of e-governance will be a booster to the efficiency of administration and also to our economic enterprise.
We expect the authorities concerned to revert to the important task of digitization of all cabinet record and with that send a signal to entire administrative structure that the need for digitization of entire administrative system cannot be delayed or avoided any more.
Follow our WhatsApp channel