TN govt websites lack updated info about schemes
TNN | Sep 10, 2019, 04.23 AM IST
Chennai: Citizens in Bengaluru from the comfort of their homes or offices find out which roads are pothole-ridden, or track various crime or traffic statistics on the government website concerned. In , Tamil Nadu, a state with one of the highest internet penetrations and tech-savvy people, the various government websites have shoddy data that is either not updated regularly or has the barest of information.
Whether it is basic statistics about a department or updates like minutes of meeting and decisions taken, agencies of the Tamil Nadu avoid making proactive disclosures as is mandatory under section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
For instance, neither the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (popular as Metroater) nor the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) published minutes of its board meetings online, despite taking decisions that directly affects lakhs of citizens.
None of the 17 public universities puts out minutes of meetings of the syndicate, senate or academic council online. At University of Madras, several professors have raised the issue of making the minutes public, but to no avail.
Citizens of Kerala or Karnataka can login to the website of the state assembly and access information about starred and unstarred questions during the session. Such information is yet to be uploaded on the TN assembly website.
Such a method of working indicates poor governance and transparency measures taken by the bureaucrats as well as politicians in the state, activists and retired bureaucrats said.
The state information commission, which had reviewed the proactive disclosures of certain govenment agencies, itself maintains a poorly updated website with the latest data being four years old.
M G Devasahayam, a former TN bureaucrat, said such an opaque and autocratic way of functioning came from a mindset that looks at citizens as subjects of a kingdom. “Our politicians think we don’t have any right to information,” he said.
Jayaram Venkatesan, a social activist and convenor of anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam, said most of the data that should be made public is already available to government officials. “They just need to make it public for citizens. It needs no extra effort, just political will,” he said.
Jayaram pointed out that information pertaining to beneficiaries of government schemes like free laptops or housing should particularly be published online so that citizens know that the system was transparent. “This is the best way to reduce corruption,” he said.
TNN | Sep 10, 2019, 04.23 AM IST
Chennai: Citizens in Bengaluru from the comfort of their homes or offices find out which roads are pothole-ridden, or track various crime or traffic statistics on the government website concerned. In , Tamil Nadu, a state with one of the highest internet penetrations and tech-savvy people, the various government websites have shoddy data that is either not updated regularly or has the barest of information.
Whether it is basic statistics about a department or updates like minutes of meeting and decisions taken, agencies of the Tamil Nadu avoid making proactive disclosures as is mandatory under section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
For instance, neither the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (popular as Metroater) nor the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) published minutes of its board meetings online, despite taking decisions that directly affects lakhs of citizens.
None of the 17 public universities puts out minutes of meetings of the syndicate, senate or academic council online. At University of Madras, several professors have raised the issue of making the minutes public, but to no avail.
Citizens of Kerala or Karnataka can login to the website of the state assembly and access information about starred and unstarred questions during the session. Such information is yet to be uploaded on the TN assembly website.
Such a method of working indicates poor governance and transparency measures taken by the bureaucrats as well as politicians in the state, activists and retired bureaucrats said.
The state information commission, which had reviewed the proactive disclosures of certain govenment agencies, itself maintains a poorly updated website with the latest data being four years old.
M G Devasahayam, a former TN bureaucrat, said such an opaque and autocratic way of functioning came from a mindset that looks at citizens as subjects of a kingdom. “Our politicians think we don’t have any right to information,” he said.
Jayaram Venkatesan, a social activist and convenor of anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam, said most of the data that should be made public is already available to government officials. “They just need to make it public for citizens. It needs no extra effort, just political will,” he said.
Jayaram pointed out that information pertaining to beneficiaries of government schemes like free laptops or housing should particularly be published online so that citizens know that the system was transparent. “This is the best way to reduce corruption,” he said.
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