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Karnataka is considered to be the torchbearer of the Indian IT industry. And, Bangalore, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India boasts the tag as the country’s IT capital.
Nevertheless, if government websites are any indication, the state is far behind other states. The websites of the Horticulture Department, Transport Department, Health Department and a host of other state government websites have not been updated for months.
The information available on the Citizens’ Services website is mostly outdated, inaccurate and can be a case of willful distortion by officials.
From the Right to Information details of policy programmes, the needs of citizens and taxpayers have been completely ignored. While many see up-to-date information on state ministers and elected representatives websites, they show utmost disregard to update relevant information required by users.
“In fact, there is an absolute lack of discipline in this matter. Every government department will have a nodal officer who is supposed to update regularly. A typical babu mentality prevails among the managers concerned of these websites,” said a former principal secretary, Department of IT, BT and S&T who did not want to be named.
To start with the department of IT, BT and ST itself, the information under the Right to Information Act, per se, the names of First Appellate Authority and Public Information Officers are still those of 2010. Even the Department of Health and Family Welfare did not inform about the schemes and progress report post 2008-09.
The Principal Secretary further went on to add that in 2011, it was mandated that every website be updated every Monday. “This was to ensure discipline. If people failed to update, then the website would be blacked out, causing much embarrassment. However, it did not last long as many criticized the decision,” he said.
Former chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda issued directions in February 2012 to all government departments to update their websites by March 15 to bring in transparency in the functioning of government departments. However, the order seems to have been taken lightly.
Commenting on the Health Department’s Website, the Department of Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Madan Gopal said that it is unpardonable if the websites are not updated on time. He promised to update the Health Department’s Website in a week’s time.
“I did not look in to the website as I was appointed a week back. Now, since it is brought to my notice, I will ensure that the website is updated within a week,” Madan Gopal said.
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