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Bhubaneswar: Boasting high of accountability, transparency and advance technology in public administration, the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD formed the government in Odisha for the fifth consecutive term in 2019. However, it seems the governing bodies in the State have shift-deleted these firm words from their dictionary.
A case in point is the e-despatch (electronic transfer of letters) system introduced in Odisha months ago for use by the government departments. The system was to be adopted by most of the departments for the transaction of all letters and applications after they are uploaded on the e-platforms for public view.
However, the way the e-despatch portals are being handled by the departments gives an impression that the implementation of the same is far from assumptions.
Digest this now. Forget accessibility to e-despatch system, the worrying fact is the last letter uploaded in e-despatch (edodisha.gov.in) by the State Agriculture department was on May 27, 2020. The General Administration & PG department entrusted with the task of ensuring efficient performance of all departments hasn't uploaded any letter on the platform for more than five months now.
Similarly, Sports & Youth Services Department, Literature & Culture department, ST & SC department, and Forest Environment department do not show a single record as yet. The notification box reads - No Records Found!!!
The situation of the portal has nothing but encouraged allegations against the government that it is intentionally not updating anything on the portals to hide facts, thereby denying the public access to all the departments' information.
"Odisha introduced e-despatch system so that citizens can access all the government notifications, circulars, and guidelines. Crores of rupees were spent for the purpose. However, when the process began, and all the decisions of the government were made available in the public domain, the real face of the government came to the picture. People have all rights to know how the government is executing various works. When slowly everything came to the fore and media started highlighting, the government very strategically stopped functioning of e-despatch, " said Pradip Pradhan, RTI activist.
With the launch of e-despatch system as an effective way of official letter communication, citizens were able to access government information and inter and intradepartmental order-exchange. However, people searching for any important info are now deprived of it, courtesy non-updation by various departments.
Due to Covid restrictions, journalists in the state have not been given permission to enter the Lok Seva Bhawan, and the non-updation on e-despatch has made it all the more difficult for many to access orders.
Senior Journalist Rabi Dash said, "Lok Seva Bhawan is a no-entry zone for journalists now, nobody is allowed. And what I see is not a single department is uploading any letter on the e-platforms. No action is being taken. However, the government boasts of 5T in all its operations, we (govt) have brought transparency, new technology, but to no avail."
Former Chief Secretary Sahadev Sahu said, "Who updates the portals? It's being done by data operators. Most of the senior-level officials, the Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries and others, are not tech-savvy. How will people access letters when they are not being uploaded?"
Questions are also being raised why the government has not taken any action if the departments have failed in discharging their responsibilities.
The State government is yet to respond to the allegations of 'intentional non-updation'.
https://youtu.be/VO8Op-IAu_k
