Ranchi, Sept. 15: In a welcome step to introduce public accountability to political announcements, chief minister Raghubar Das today launched mobile and web-based portals and apps to enable people track actual work done, but ironically most of these "game-changer" links and apps aren't functional now.
In a much-hyped m-governance launch at Project Building, Das kicked off a host of initiatives to digitally bridge the gap between his government and people, an Aadhaar-enabled midday meal monitoring and a system to track real-time implementation of initiatives announced by the chief minister among them.
But, apart from Jhar-Sewa, the renamed and expanded form of e-district, the others don't work.
For example, the m-Gov mobile app is yet to be linked with android phones. The m-Gov portal ( mgov.jharkhand.gov.in), supposed to mention all the activities in this m-Governance month starting today, does open but has no content.
And, links of monitoring systems related to Aadhaar-enabled midday meal, CMODO (chief minister's office directives/orders) letters, CM announcements, and Right to Guarantee of Services Act have not been hosted publicly yet for them to work.
IT department mandarins refused to name a day when these could be accessed by people on computers or smartphones, offering the standard phrase "very soon".
But, Das sounded upbeat at the launch, which also marked the start of m-Governance month till October 15, calling these drives "enablers" to make the "government machinery available to people" at the click of a mouse or mobile.
"In the last eight months, the focus of my government has been simple, accountability and reaching out to common masses through technology for better governance. Our Prime Minister is also highly IT focused, and it is the need of the hour," he said.
He added that by November 15, the state's Foundation Day, the government would roll out mobile SMS vans for people who did not have access to Internet. "All one would need to do is send an SMS to a number about your needs and a mobile van will be at your doorstep to help you," he announced.
Though state IT secretary S.K. Burnwal did not give a deadline on when the links would work, he praised the potential of the ideas.
He pointed out Jhar-Sewa (serviceonline.jharkhand.gov.in) linked 48 services to existing six essential ones such as registration of births and deaths, the new ones including online access to pension schemes, electoral services, consumer courts, land records, among others.
"Citizens can track the actual action taken after the chief minister makes an announcement (related to infrastructure, grant and others) at the Assembly or elsewhere or issues a written order to any department on dedicated portals," Burnwal said on CM's announcement and CMODO links. "In fact, so can the chief minister himself. It is a powerful reality check."
"Plus, Aadhaar-based midday meal monitoring system is all about transparency, for the state, school and parents to know if a child has actually eaten his or her free lunch," he stressed, adding it was only one of its kind in India and would work on the lines of Aadhaar-based biometric attendance scheme.
Giving details, a state IT department official said: "We are leveraging the nearly 100 per cent Aadhaar coverage in Jharkhand in the midday scheme. So, similar to Aadhaar attendance, after lunch, a child will punch the biometric machine to confirm he or she ate. A dashboard will alert parents, school authority and district administration if a child is absent for seven days."
But on when the monitoring systems would work, he kept quiet too.
