Digital India, e-governance flop : Not a single website of State Govt Departments updated
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 08 2018: Despite the digital India dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the huge amount of funds sanctioned by the Central Government for e-governance, none of the official websites of the State Government's Departments have been found properly updated till date.

Taking stock of the situation, the Chief Secretary's office has directed all the Departments concerned to do the needful.

On the other hand.

Department of Information Technology has also sent necessary letters to the Heads of Departments concerned as well as various private undertakings, societies and agencies under the State Government regarding the same.

According to an official source, none of the official websites of the various Departments as well as that of the private undertakings, societies and agencies under the State Government have been properly updated.

As such, these websites are filled with outdated information creating great inconveniences to the public and the situation has forced the Chief Secretary to take notice, the source added.

The source explained that the Department of Information Technology is the nodal Department and the monitoring authority of the official website of the State Government, www.manipurgov.in.

The Department has its own website as well (www.ditmanipur.gov.in) but it does not specifically monitor each and every website of other Departments of the State Government.

The maintenance works and updating of the said websites are allocated by the Departments themselves to other agencies or firms, the source added.

However, due to lack of any updates regarding the websites and the presence of oudated information on the said websites, the IT Department, under the instruction of the State Government, has sent necessary letters to the Departments concerned.

The source informed that as per the instruction of the Central Government, the Departments have also been instructed to make their websites easily accessible by persons with disabilities as well.

On the other hand, another source explained that the presence of outdated information in the Departments' websites has caused immense inconveniences to the public.

As per the RTI Act, 2005 (counting from the year it came into force) every Department has to update all necessary details like Acts, rules, beneficiary lists etc, on their websites every 120 days.

The source claimed that most of the State Departments seem to have no regard for this rule and as such when anyone try to access any details or information in any of the websites, they are not properly able to get the information they require.

As none of the Acts, rules and details have been updated, the Departments are hesitant to share all details related to the Department with any outside party and this has created a sort of mistrust between the Government and the people, the source claimed.

The source further added that despite huge funds sanctioned in the name of digital India and e-governance, the alleged lack of interest visible in the workings of the Government Departments has conjured up many possible questions regarding the success of the vision.

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