Karnataka unveils era of e-governance

Through the live chat, Krishna enquired about the condition of roads, recruitment of teachers, prices of onions, tur dal and the law and order situation in the respective districts.

The prospect of talking to the chief minister “face-to-face” (so to speak), and worse, through a video camera, appeared to make the officials very self-conscious.

Many a time, Krishna requested them to face the camera and make themselves visible to him. To the Additional Superintendent of Police, Mysore, the chief minister said: “Please move up, I want to see you”.

After Wednesday’s conference, the chief minister’s office has decided that the DC, SP and CEO of each Zilla Panchayat should besimultaneously visible on screen henceforth.

Though problems specific to the respective districts were Krishna’s concern, the common subject of his enquiry (to all districts) was the condition of roads. “How are the roads? Are you taking measures to repair them or not?” was the common question to all the Deputy Commissioners (DC). Requesting the officials to send proposals for repair of roads, the chief minister told them that the Government was trying to raise funds from HUDCO for development of roads.

The other common direction was to recruit teachers against any vacancy. “No vacancy should be left unfilled,” he told the officials.

While Krishna spent about five minutes with each district, state Chief Secretary B K Bhattacharya used the same facility to issue directions to the district administrations.

Asking the Gulbarga DC to “keep an eye” on the price of tur dal, Krishna enquired about this year’s tur crop. “Neither the Centre nor the state have fixed a support price for tur dal. If theprice falls below Rs 1,150 (per quintal), farmers will face difficulties. Though the present situation does not warrant market intervention by the Government, make sure such a situation does not arise,” he said. The chief minister said he would like to be posted about the price of tur dal.

Speaking to Dharwad DC, Krishna enquired about the measures being taken to purchase poor quality onions from farmers. The price of onions must have improved after the Government’s market intervention scheme, he said. “Please bring this to the notice of the farmers,” he added.

As soon as the Mysore DC came on the screen, Krishna enquired about the death of a youth in police custody in Kollegal on Tuesday. He also ordered the DC to take emergency measures to repair dried-up wells, which have led to water shortage in the district.

Speaking to the Mangalore DC, Krishna said that the police should make efforts to nab Sudhir Prabhu, who escaped from police custody recently.

Talking to reporters later, Krishna said thatthe video-conferencing system to all the 27 districts would be in place within the next three days. At present, the facility was available for nine districts. It would be extended to some taluk headquarters also, he added.

The video conferencing and Internet facilities would be extended to all ministers in Government. Krishna himself plans to contact each district administration every fortnight.

The networking has been implemented by the public sector Indian Telephone Industries (ITI). The chief minister was all praise for the public sector for meeting his 30-day deadline.