| Bangalore might be upset with the way it is dug up today, but a closer look tells you that the city is being connected from one end to another to the virtual world, using optical fiber cables.
However, while those in the state who are not averse to technology find it easy to use the Internet to pay their electric bills, book a movie ticket, or apply for passports, IT is still some distance away from the common person.
Which is why the state government has initiated steps to take IT to the masses - by educating them about the benefits of technology. Started by the Chief Minister S M Krishna two years ago, Bangalore's IT policy for effective e-governance, which involves computerising every department, and creating Web sites for every district, today has reached a stage where the government can boast of certain achievements.
State employees are encouraged to flash visiting cards that have their e-mail IDs imprinted. The departmental examinations - a mandatory for state governmental employees - are also been managed through computers.
According to Vivek Kulkarni, the state IT secretary, the government also plans to appoint Information Officers for each of the departments to ease out dissemination of information to the public.
The government is also in the process of training its employees in basic IT, which would hopefully make them more IT savvy. While the state government has been enthusiastic to rope in software powerhouses in the evolution of e-governance in the state, companies such as C-DAC, CMC, EMC, ECIL are involved in big way with the whole process of connecting the state.
The state government has also tied up with Microsoft, and Compaq in the process.
Focus on education
Though many facets of the programme run through various departments of the state government - from education to the public works department, from municipal corporations to the agriculture department, the focus of the initiative remains education.
Called Yuva.com, the programme attempts to take IT to the students and underprivileged youth, by building 225 training centres all over the state. According to Kulkarni, the programme also targets women and families earning an income of less than Rs 36,000 per annum. The government has already identified these centres and allotted them IT institutes like Aptech, NIIT, SSI etc.
Apart from this, the government had also taken up a project to inject IT-based education from Classes 8 to 10 in about 1,000 schools in the state.
Although the schools are identified and the programme is launched in all the districts, channeling the funds for such a huge initiative is yet to be met. Aptech, NIIT, Educomp are assisting the government in implementing the project.
As for the state government exams and results, the government has e-enabled the entire process of seat allotments and results for the Common Entrance Test (CET). To keep up the good work going, the state has also computerised the SSLC and PUC examinations' processing and made the results available on the Web.
This includes admissions for TCH and Bachelors in Education (BEd) courses, recruitment and transfer of teachers and placement of newly recruited teachers and probationary headmasters through computerised counselling.
Online Tax returns
But perhaps, like the Andhra Pradesh government, the most important initiative that the Karnataka government is undertaking at this point is to make tax returns online. The finance department has computerised the payment of taxes, filing of returns, dealers registration, vigilance and intelligence activities.
The public works Finance Cell and the Zilla Panchayat units are computerised for monitoring monthly grants and releases. The government also plans to connect the budget information systems, work on which had already begun in 1992, to the treasury system soon.
Kulkarni also updated that the revenue secretariat is on the Web, LAN is in place, while a system is implemented to track files and letters. The registration process can be accomplished online.
The treasury department has computerised payments and receipts in 20 of the 31 districts and 184 sub-treasuries dealing with transactions worth about Rs 20,000 crore. A network center has also been developed to handle a central database in Bangalore and disaster recovery centre at Dharwad. Application software for the network center is being developed by CMC.
Besides these, the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) has been entrusted with the job of installing a VSAT network, the prototype of which will be tested at five districts. The government assures that a full-fledged system will be in place before September this year.
Good news for farmers
The government brings in great news for the farmers. Computerised Land records and Registered Transfer Certficates will be made available to farmers soon. In the next stage, the government plans to update and make records online.
According to Kulkarni, plans also include setting up 7,500 information kiosks all over the state, and connecting all the sections of rural development. Zilla Parishads for example, will be connected to a central system that will monitor all of their plans.
Tracking vehicles on road
The government has been swift in computerising the Motor Vehicle branches, where details of about 30,000 vehicles are available right now. Computerised driver's licences are being issued at one of the RTOs in the state as a pilot project, while there are plans to extend this to other RTOs as well.
The process of integrating the whole data with the city traffic police departments are also to be taken up with the computerisation of the five regional transport offices in the state and also the Transport Commissioner's Office. The assignment, entrusted with the National Informatics Centre (NIC), is to be taken up in phases.
The same goes with the policing system in the state capital. According to the latest information, 153 police stations have been provided with computers. While complaint registration systems are already computerised, there are plans to computerise all the activities of departments.
The forestry division is busy with its installation of Geological Information Systems (GIS) packages. The department has already implemented a software package on financial accounting, forest offence cases, land use data, afforestation and wildlife management, according to Kulkarni.
The agriculture department has entrusted the job of computerising all the activities with support from the NIC. The departments already have a LAN in the directorate, while database of 12,000 employees are available, so are crop statistics from the period 1980 to 1997.
The government also has plans to issue computerised ration cards in Bangalore and also install an information system relating to Targeted Public Distribution System (TDPS). Work is underway to computerise 40 municipal corporations in the state, while C-DAC has already computerised six.
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