NEW DELHI, MAY 18: The government is considering bringing an ordinance to check black marketeering of Y2K solutions, as the millennium bug, projected to hit computers worldwide on January 1, 2000, was fast approaching.A committee of the government's task force on Y2K is currently drafting the proposed bill to regulate the vendors from supplying non-compliant Y2K kits and safeguarding the users' interests arising out of the fake solutions for the computer glitch, official sources said.When contacted, member convener of the Y2K task force, N Sheshagiri confirmed that a bill to protect the interests of the customers was being drafted and would be ready for further constitutional process in another ten days. Sheshagiri, chief of National Informatics Centre (NIC), also said a legislation to protect customer safety on Y2K was the need of the hour.The sources said the task force hoped to enforce the Bill by an ordinance by next month and were speeding up the process as the D-day of the millennium bug wasfast approaching. They said even an ordinance could be considered as there should be some kind of norms for vendors selling solutions on Y2K.The sources said with just seven months to go before the bug was predicted to send computers awry, the black-marketeering menace was snowballing into a serious problem leaving customers panicky.In such a situation the vendors are to be screened and regulated thoroughly, the sources said. However, chairman of the task force on Y2K, Montek Singh Ahluwalia was not available for comment.The main objective of the bill would be to prevent vendors from "cheating" the customers, the sources said adding that the government had received quite a few complaints about vendors not providing Y2K compliant systems and software. The sources said about 30 per cent of the Y2K software vendors were not at all serious about the problem and a legislation would change the entire scenario.Meanwhile, the sources said the omnibus cyber law was likely to be further delayed because ofthe present political uncertainty. The Y2K task force was set up on the recommendations of the prime minister's task force on information technology to monitor the progress of Y2K compliance efforts both in government and private sector.
