E-governance dependant on stable telecoms

Meghalaya Governor RS Mooshahary on Friday said e-governance "cannot create impact" in states across the north-east region without developing stable telecommunications networks, Daily News & Analysis reports.

"We have to make the inaccessible areas of the north-east accessible. Unless a stable telecommunications network can be developed, e-governance cannot create impact," he said while addressing an e-governance consultative workshop - Citizen Centric e-Government - aimed at making government services easily accessible to the citizen and ensuring efficiency, transparency and reliability.

According to IBN Live, chief secretary WMS Pariat said in his keynote address the "core IT infrastructure is already in place". He said Meghalaya has done better than most state governments in the region and even comparable to some of the top states in other parts of the country.

Giving an overview of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), Rajendra Kumar, joint secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), said the NeGP was launched (in 2006) with an aim to make all government services available to the common man in his locality through common service delivery outlets in order to ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability.

Mooshahary stated that people were getting impatient in the absence of better livelihoods and employment opportunities, News Track India states. "The IT industry gives us hope that we will be able to fulfill responsibilities. If the process is delayed any longer, people would not accept it," he said.

Lamenting the poor telecommunications connectivity in Meghalaya, Mooshahary said: "Every time I am told that this is due to some cut or ongoing construction. This attitude has to change."