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| Revenue Deptt acquired outdated software: VOK Report | | Digitization Of Land Records | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Mar 27: The probe conducted by the Vigilance Organization Kashmir into the digitization of the land records, carried out by the firm owned by a son of a separatist in 1997, has revealed that software acquired by the Revenue department for the process was outdated and the government officials ignored all the technical details to help the supplier.
The probe report submitted by the VOK, which is in possession of Early times states: "The documented reports regarding the functionality of this software suggest that it had some inherent problems. Software approved was DOS based and used Windows 3.1 at the font end. When this software was accepted Widows 95 was a very well established operating system with many advantages over dead DOS."
The report states "The technical committee while negotiating with the supplier should have opted for Windows 95 based software or at least included a clause in the agreement to this effect. But this was not done ignoring the future cost of the upgradation. The copyright of the software was not checked."
The VOK report while explaining the idea behind customized software states: "It means total interaction with the developers. This was absent in this case despite software being developed of vital importance. Had the Revenue officials interacted with the firm during the development of the software it would have definently given them an edge in fixing the cost of the software at a subsequent stage while negotiating with the supplier."
The report states that the offer from the developers was vague about the developmental costs of the software. " The cost of each module fixed at Rs 15,100 per module was not verified. Nor was it ascertained whether the software had 40 modules in it. On checking the software it came to fore that only about 12 modules were provided by the software company."
"The costs of utilities involved in the development of the software were never ascertained by the department or the Technical Committee," the report states. "The software was the copy right of the firm which provided it. It could have demanded any price. But at the same time they had only one customer in the whole world for their software. Hence they too were dependent on Revenue department for the sale of this package. This would have brought the seller and the buyer on even level with bargaining power in the hands of the Revenue department. The department could have spent some money and made an effort to locate another suitable package. At that point of time many firms were already working in Urdu script and excellent word processors were available. These did not depend on typical keyboards and other security features to safeguard the piracy."
The report states that had the Revenue department contacted any of these who had technology to work in Urdu some modifications would have created a data base too. "This was a very strong bargaining point which was not used to cut a better and future proof bargain," the report added.
It may be recalled that Early Times in its ongoing series about the computerization of land records has reported that son of a separatist had bagged the project worth Rs 2 crore to digitize the land records in mid-nineties.
"The Revenue officials without inviting any global tenders had given the contract to the company of the son of the separatist. All the norms were flouted to appease the separatist," sources said.
After the scam came to fore the then J&K government ordered a Vigilance probe into the matter. "Soon after GoI came to know that the son of the separatist, close to Pakistan, had compiled the land records, questions were raised. The biggest question was from where did he acquire the software? And why did the Revenue department handpick the son of the separatist for the project?"
They said, "The Hurriyat lobby at that point of time was so strong that it got the probe scuttled and the questions which were raised at that point of time are still unanswered. But many people believe that land records of entire J&K are in possession of Pakistan and the software used for the compilation of these records was pirated from the neighbouring country as the records were compiled in Urdu language." |
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