Kashmir as i see it !

Friday, January 16, 2009

Corruption, e-governance and return of youth from AJK

I would like to ask critics of Omar Abdullah whether they could think of any other CM who would have the insight to figure out that in order to curb the menace of corruption, the best solution is to take the means of petty officials fleecing the public for the last rupee, and introduce e-governance. The same is the case with the return of youth from AJK. Although many have promised to guarantee the safe return of our youth who crossed over to AJK, I have full confidence in Omar that he will see through this.

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:

Ray Lightning said...

(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

A video I made on history of Kashmir. All feedback's are welcome.

Various Rallies of Tanviir Sadiq

Tanvir Sadiq

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