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| Connecting departments via internet still a distant dream in JK | | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 22: Authorities have failed to connect the government departments via dedicated internet connection in Jammu and Kashmir.
The government of India in 2005 approved a project aimed to synchronise all official departments of a given state through a dedicated internet connection in a closed used group.
In 2009, the then government of J&K had prepared a Draft Proposal Report (DPR) for Rs 106.57 crores for implementing the project in the state and forwarded the same to Ministry of Information Technology Government of India. The tenders were floated four different times until March 2014 but all of them were cancelled.
The project would have substantially reduced the overall time taken in completing administrative tasks by providing converged communications services (voice, data and video) accessible to all government departments.
It would have reduced unnecessary movement of vehicles, employees and documents.
However, there is rarely any implementation on the ground.
"There is no development on this project. Connecting departments via internet connection is still a distant dream in Jammu and Kashmir," an official said.
An official in Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency said he was unaware about the status of the project. "Government at the top level has to take any decision for implementation of the project," the official added.
The government recently also framed a fact finding committee to enquire irregularities and lack of progress in implementation of this project.
The committee is headed by Principal Secretary Transport Department, while Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce Department, and Secretary Higher Education are its members. They have been asked to submit the report by June 6.
The Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JaKeGA) functions under Information Technology. As per the details available on its website, the SWAN project is a major core infrastructure project under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
The project, if implemented, was expected provided connectivity to the two J&K state headquarters (SHQ), 20 District Headquarters (DHQ), and 152 block headquarters (BHQ) with a minimum internet speed of 2 megabytes per second.
Further, the network would have connected all state and designated government offices located within a 15 kms radius of the SHQ, all state and other designated offices located within 10 kms of each DHQ), and all state and other designated offices located within 5 kms of each BHQ. |
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