Dreaming of e-Governance
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 02, 2012 -

Even though the swift response of Education Minister M Okendro in making necessary rectification on the supposedly 'upgraded website' of Education Department after the lapses were pin-pointed out through this column was appreciable, it appears that the terminology of 'information update' is something still alien to most websites of other Government departments.

That too, in this age of super computer when information is said to be just a mouse click away.

In fact, the information updated on the upgraded website of Education Department is yet to be reflected on other web links of the official website of the Government of Manipur where L Jayantakumar Singh is still standing tall as the Education Minister of the state (by the way, after Jayantakumar, DD Thaisii was in charge of Education until the last elections to the State Assembly wherein he tasted defeat) with PK Singh as the Commissioner of Education (S) and M Harekrishna entrusted with the dual responsibility of the Director as well as the Additional Director of the Department.

Such blooper has more than evidently shown how the State Government and its Departments have been functioning so pathetically all these years and the responsible officials have no moral compunction over their own undoing, perhaps, with clear understanding that there is none to take them to task.

If that is not so, then, why should most websites of the Government departments in Manipur miserably fails to update their information and activities for the ears and eyes of the people?

A random check on some of these websites reveal the shocking truth that the home page of Environment and Ecology Wing, Government of Manipur is adorn with a photograph of World Environment Day observance dating back to 2003 (as if the department has stopped observing the World Environment Day since then); Directorate of Economics & Statistics has nothing new to announce on its website after the 3rd World Statistical Day observance on 29th June, 2009; the website of Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) was last updated on 30th July, 2011; H Imocha Singh and not LP Golmei is the Commissioner of Science and Technology, etc.

These are only some of the most glaring shortcomings that even a layman could detect without any stretch of imagination.

And well, about the web-pages and their contents, for which the Government and its departments concerned may have spent a fortune at the cost of tax payers' money, the less said the better.

Interestingly, the Government of Manipur recently won the accolade of being the only Indian state to have initiated all four projects, namely, State Wide Area Network (SWAN), State Data Center (SDC), National/State Delivery Gateway (NSDG/SSDG) and State Portal and Common Service Center under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), the components of a common digital service delivery infrastructure.

In the same function in which the Government of Manipur was honoured for this unique feat, Chief Secretary DS Poonia claimed that Manipur has also independently put in place a 'file tracking system'.

Looking at the out-dated websites of various Government departments, such accolades and claims sound so hollow and vain.

Can we expect successful implementation of e-Governance, when the officials concerned of the Government who are supposed to update the information on the websites of their respective departments are sleeping away?

If yes, then, another accolade is definitely on the way. Hip Hip, Hooray!!!