Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has stopped communicating through the e-despatch site of the state government following the discretionary quota allotment controversy.

The e-despatch service of the development authority has been stopped since December 20 last year. Following criticism, the BDA has posted only one letter on January 2 this year for the last time. Earlier, e-despatch site of the authority used to have at least 20 letters on a daily basis.

The service is part of e-governance policy of the government that aimed to make communication between the government and the citizen transparent. Through this site departments post their daily matters and letter communication and it is open to any person.

The report on allotment of plots, houses and flats under discretionary quota by the Taradatt committee set up by the state government became public last month through the e-despatch site of the development authority. As there were many influential people on the list, the BDA received a lot of flak for the irregularities.

Sources in the development authority said after the report became public, the BDA was heavily criticised.

'It has dented the image of the authority. With the help of the e-despatch system, people, particularly mediapersons, have been accessing internal communications of the BDA and using those to lambast the organisation. This has forced the top bosses to stop the e-despatch service,' said an officer on the condition of anonymity.

Public relation officer of BDA, Madhumita Rath, however, said there was a technical snag for which the e-despatch site of the organisation might not be working. 'I would talk to the vice-chairman and other senior officials about this,' said Rath.

The e-despatch site of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has also been irregular in uploading daily information for the public. The site shows a letter last uploaded on November 22 last year. Both these organisations are headed by Krishan Kumar. He is the vice-chairman of BDA and the commissioner of corporation.

While the state government has passed its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy 2014 a year ago and is working to implement it, unwillingness of the government departments to adopt the e-governance system makes things worse.