The Hindu : Kerala News : Critics trying to scuttle e-governance: Cherkalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 13, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Critics trying to scuttle e-governance: Cherkalam

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 12. The Minister for Local Self-Government, Cherkalam Abdulla, today said that critics of the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) were out to scuttle the computerisation of local bodies at each stage of its implementation.

Baseless allegations

In a statement issued here, Mr. Abdulla said that the observations in the study report (prepared by four independent software experts) showing the activities of the IKM in poor light were prima facie baseless.

Activists of the Free Software Foundation, who were behind this study, had gone to the panchayats to gather details for their report by `pretending' that they were IKM officials, he alleged. He said that one allegation raised was that only four of the 12 applications developed by the IKM were found deployed in Vellanad panchayat. However, all the 12 applications were functional in this panchayat.

Another allegation was about the quality of the `Sevana' application, which dealt with registration and certification of deaths, births and marriages. This application was, in fact, selected for the `best IT usage award' instituted by Computer Society of India and Tata Consultancy Services in 2001. With the help of the `Sevana' application, the entire records relating to deaths, births and marriages for the last 34 years were now being computerised in Malappuram and Kasargod districts, in addition to some panchayats and corporations outside these districts that were selected for the pilot implementation of IKM's project.

Computerisation

Similarly, the `Sulekha' package developed by IKM was being used for the last two years to computerise all particulars relating to the annual plans of 1,215 local self-Government institutions in the State. The Planning Board had used the data provided by this package for its Economic Reviews for the years 2001-02 and 2002-03.

E-governance

"E-governance is not merely the deployment of a few software applications. It is basically about the functioning of Government offices, changing procedures by attending to the existing shortcomings, preparing the employees for change and using the tools of Information Technology to usher in a better system.

E-governance is an integrated process involving all these aspects," he said. He pointed out that International Telecommunication Union had, in its website, described IKM's achievements as an `ICT Success Story'. The IKM, during the last five years, had built up `a virtual repository of research-and-development expertise' for addressing the needs of e-governance, Mr. Abdulla claimed.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala