Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 1: The department of tourism and the department of culture in the state are among the worst performers among the different departments of the state government when it comes to transparency.
E-dispatch portal (www.edodisha.gov.in) of Orissa government, where most of the departments of the state government upload their official correspondences, surprisingly has scanty information from the tourism department and the culture department. The online portal of the Orissa government claims to have 44,71,093 documents on their database. Department of tourism and the department of culture, which have been combined into a single unit on the portal, have only 13 outgoing documents, to claim as belonging to either or both, till date.
When compared to other departments, a great disparity can be spotted. The agriculture department has till date uploaded 1,32,375 outgoing documents online. Similarly, the department of school and mass education has 4,30,520 outgoing documents on the portal. Many other departments of the government have similar numbers.
The electronic system of dispatching letters from headquarters to other levels and also receiving letters from other offices, including lower-level offices, proved to be the mainstay in maintaining transparency in the proceedings of different departments and also in minimising the time taken to do a job. The system was put in place in 2007 at the Panchayti Raj department and later descended to different other departments of the state government. The system also made the NASSCOM give an award to the Orissa government for its innovative approach to work. However, some departments washed their hands of the process after uploading few
documents.
In the system, most of the departments of the state government upload reader version of official correspondences, which could be downloaded by any person by typing a security code mentioned on the portal.
Queries, related to the failure of the tourism department to upload required documents online, from OrissaPost did not yield any response from the officials of the tourism department.
Reacting on the issue, Benjamine Simon, chairman, Indian Association of Tour Operators (Orissa Chapter) said, “They should ideally practice transparency. If official documents are uploaded on the portal, it only boosts the confidence of different stakeholders involved in the process. The department should integrate the system in order to disseminate the documents online so that the people who want to know about the happenings of the departments are kept in loop.”
