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| Will Govt appointed committee see day's light now? | | Saga of computerisation of land records | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 18: As the government last week constituted a committee to roll out computerised registration system across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, chances are high that lakhs of rupees out of the state exchequer were invested in introducing Information Technology (IT) and e-Governance in the day to day working of the organisation would no longer go down the drain.
Vide Government order number 31 of JK GAD of 2019, dated 15-11- 2019, the government constituted a committee to roll out computerisation of the registration system in Jammu and Kashmir with revenue department tasked to serve the three members committee. Administrative secretary of the finance department has been appointed as the chairman of the committee while as Administrative secretary of information department, financial commissioner revenue, administrative secretary revenue have been appointed as its members.
Now, with the government for the first time rigorously pursuing the matter to computerise the land records and make the information available to masses sans any hindrance, it will be interesting to watch whether the project will become a success story.
The government in the past in Jammu and Kashmir had taken a major initiative about 14 years back to implement e-governance in all the government departments, Public Sector Undertakings (PSU)s and other organisation under the centrally sponsored scheme. Most of the support is provided by National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is a premier institution of the Government of India, established in 1976. Respective departments have to maintain the infrastructure which includes the software content.
It has been earlier reported that a study conducted by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) at New Delhi about the status of RTI in Jammu and Kashmir reflected the sorry picture of functioning in the state. "The RTI link does not open on any internet browser. As a result it is not possible to get access to the Section 4 (1) disclosures or the list of PIOs and FAAs. The link to the Financial Commissioner's website is provided though the Jammu DivCom website for explaining issues dealt with by the Revenue administration such as Revenue Terminology, Units of Measurement, Land Reforms etc," the study had observed.
Furthermore, there has been very little compliance with Section 4 of the legislation which makes it obligatory for a public authority [department falling under RTI Act] to "maintain all its records and indexed in a manner and form which facilitates the right to information." It also calls for ensuring that "all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the state on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated."
What is more ironic is that the State Chief Information Commissioner in the year 2011 had formally informed the State Chief Secretary that there is not so encouraging response from Public Authorities with regard to implementation of Section 4 of the Act. |
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