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Tech

Bureaucrats call for change in centralised approach

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

BANGALORE: Bureaucrats of various state governments have demanded that there should be less involvement of the Centre for an efficient implementation of e-governance in the state administration. In a three-day National Conference on E-Governance that concluded here on Wednesday, it was stressed that state level exercise should be the focus for e-governance to be brought in. This was disclosed by the Karnataka information technology secretary Sanjoy Das Gupta, while briefing the press on the outcome of the conference.

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He said that the need for a National Institute for Smart Governance was also discussed. "The possible structure and role of such an institute was discussed in the conference. However, its venue was not discussed," he added.

Mr Das Gupta said that there was a lot of bitterness among the state bureaucrats on the great constraints on the ability of the states to develop. They called for the empowerment of state departments. "It was felt that the centralised approach, followed for so long, should be rethought," he said.

For the first time, the idea of a Government Enterprise Resource Planning on the lines of ERP was mooted in the conference. Mr Das Gupta informed that a report would be prepared based on the various conclusions in the conference and brought out in a CD, "after the deletion of stronger objections". He added that some sort of a document would be released based on the conference under the name of Bangalore Declaration.

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When asked if there were any concrete steps taken during the conference, Mr Das Gupta said,"It is for every state to decide on their own. As for Karnataka, we will prepare the details in 10-15 days. Many in the conference wanted milestones to be put for action, which were strongly resisted by senior citizens."

The Karnataka IT secretary said that the states were of the view that they will need assistance of the Centre in the implementation of e-governance. "Many investments such as backbone and earth stations will have to be built. Few things we may have to go and ask the Centre," he added.

Some of the points on which a broad consensus emerged during the debate were:



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  1. The Central government should provide support for capacity building in IT in the states.

  2. The focus of governance has to shift from being government centric to citizen centric.

  3. IT provides an opportunity for large scale delivery of quality services.

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  4. The use of IT must factilitate efficient delivery of government services to citizens and business.

  5. There is a need to re-engineer the process of government in order to achieve synergy with IT.

  6. Human resource development of existing workforce in order to inculcate appropriate skills and attitudes is a critical factor.

  7. Government, industry and community must join hands in e-delivery of services, especially in social sectors.

  8. A sound communication infrastructure is essential for ubiquitous access.

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