Plumbers and drivers go online

POLITICAL PARTIES can provide real help to people, and even virtual assistance. The public perception of political parties is that they spend their resources and efforts in settling scores with their rivals and have no time to engage themselves in any purposeful activity.A new initiative by the four-year-old TMC seeks to prove such `cynics' wrong. It regards politics as an extension of social service and to put its principle into action, the party has made use of IT and is developing an online employment exchange.

To be part of the party's official website (www.tmcmoopanar.org), the online exchange in Tamil and English consists of two sections, one for job seekers and another for job providers. Registration of job-seekers will be valid for one year and job postings for 60 days.

The website, to be commissioned shortly by the party chief Mr. G. K. Moopanar, will have details on the availability of jobs in different places and categories of jobs with the requisite educational qualifications. A provision will be made for the users to edit their profiles.

According to the chief of S&T Cell of the party Mr. V. Narayanan, the online exchange's target is on low-tech people and for jobs such as drivers and plumbers. To bridge the gap between ``Net haves and have-nots'', the party would like to help those who do not have access to computers. Such persons can get in touch with the cell directly (Satyamurthi Bhavan, Thiru.Vi.Ka Salai, Chennai 600 002). The other objective of the establishment of the exchange is to facilitate people visiting India to hire, on a short-term basis, the services of individuals for jobs like drivers.

On the day of inaugurating the exchange, the party is contemplating to organise an ``employment mela'' at its headquarters where companies can make recruitment.

Already, the party website has a page on blood donation which is a virtual blood bank. Mr. Narayanan, with a sense of pride, contends that such online services are not even offered by governments. Apart from people in different cities in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, many from foreign countries such as Bangladesh, Muscat and US have registered themselves for blood donation.

T. Ramakrishnan

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