e-governance not only seals the coffin of corrruption by petty officials, it buries it deep in six feet of soil. When the study that came out last year which gave Kashmir the distinction of being second only to Bihar in the prevalence of corrutpion, most Kashmiris were in shock and could not believe how our society has deteriorated to the extent of being at par with Bihar.
From what I understand, e-governance computerizes all government dealings with the public. All land records, state-subject certificates, birth and death records, and personal identification records will be computerized. There will be no "chai" that petty officials could demand in preparing your document. Although corruption is more prevalent and e-governance will only target the tip of the iceberg, atleast once e-governance is accomplished, hopefully that will have a cascading effect and the vice of corruption will be banished from Kashmir for ever.
1 comment:
(I am re-posting my comment here as this blog seems to be the right place to do it)
In my opinion, the biggest problem facing Kashmiri governance is the lack of transparency. It will be great if Omar Abdullah brings forward
(a) a total streamlining of the applications : where any citizen can drop in e-applications via internet centres
(b) a website which openly lists all the transactions of the government and all the bills passed in the provincial assembly, with comments allowed for citizens
(c) an open accounting and audit system which tracks every rupee that is being spent in Kashmir
These steps can be accomplished easily through the use of IT and communication technology (as has already been done in several developed countries). And since it is a small state, Kashmir can be a good testbed for the implementation of these technologies in India.
There will be a firm opposition for such moves from the bureaucracy and workers unions who think that this compromises their power on the state of things. But these reforms should be rolled forward. I think Omar is a great leader to do that.
Useful links :
www.egovindia.org
http://www.mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=144
Sun microsystems and IIT Delhi have recently started an e-governance centre : http://www.iitdmba.com/guptamp.php
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