Andhra Pradesh - Others   

e-governance kiosk reduced to a dustbin!

S. Ramu

LEFT TO DUST: The unused computer kiosk in the gram panchayat office at Bollepally in Bhongir mandal.

BOLLEPALLY (NALGONDA DT.): The most advanced Online Transaction Project (OLTP), which wowed Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, has been abandoned much to the chagrin of villagers of this tiny village in Bhongir mandal in Nalgonda district. Taking a big leap towards e-governance, the then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched the project in the presence of Mr. Gates on November 14, 2002, at Shilparamam, Hyderabad.

On seeing that a couple - Yadaiah and Kalyani - were handed over the birth certificate for their newborn baby at a multi-purpose kiosk in Bollepally, Mr. Gates appreciated the pilot project.

Inspra Solutions, in collaboration with the United Technologies Limited (UTL), took up the project at a cost of Rs.1 crore to provide 61 services of 11 departments for villagers in no time.

The OLTP was supposed to share the inter-departmental data through horizontal and vertical integration.

The reason

Two unemployed youths were appointed as kiosk operators and they gave hundreds of birth, income and caste certificates from December 15, 2002. "By September 12, 2003, the kiosk stopped functioning because of non-payment of power and telephone bills,'' a village secretary, Sandela Kistappa, told The Hindu . ``The kiosk operators, who were unpaid for more than a year, searched another employment for their livelihood. As officials shifted the computer to Bhongir, now the empty kiosk is full of cobwebs and the gram panchayat staff had been using it as dustbin.

"The OLTP is a wonderful project and it must be revived,'' demanded an youngster from the village.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Telugu Desam, Congress heading for keen tussle
Campaigning picks up in coal town
Polls an acid test for local MP
TDP campaign picks up in Nagari
Ganesh idols head for Manginapudi
e-governance kiosk reduced to a dustbin!
`Congress trying to finish off TRS'
Private armies in any form dangerous, says PCC chief
Training for polling officers to be held from September 19
`YSR promoting family rule'
Maharashtra Chief Minister arrives in Tirumala
Women greet APCC chief with empty vessels
TDP to support Independent in Proddatur
Heavy rain in Orissa

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu