Mayas dream project caught in bureaucratic red tape

  • 19/08/2010

  • Pioneer (Lucknow)

The dream project of Chief Minister Mayawati to digitalise details of Ambedkar villages is caught in bureaucratic red tape as many districts are still grappling with government order and its subsequent details. "All the District Magistrates were asked to degitalise details of Ambedkar villages of their districts and the send them to the state government. Barring a handful majority of the DMs are yet to come in terms with this new concept," a senior official in Chief Minister's office told The Pioneer here on Wednesday. In a review meeting of May last Chief Minister Mayawati had asked all the DMs to collect information about the development schemes of Ambedkar Villages and digitalise them so that their progress could be reviewed by senior officials sitting in the state capital. The Baghpat district was the first to digitalise details and subsequently this model was called `Baghpat model' in official parlance. A Government Order was issued and the DMs were asked to digitalise the details within three months. In the next month's review meeting, the CM again stressed on the digitalisation of details of Ambedkar village. Subsequent to this Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta sent a letter to all DMs to digitalise the details at the earliest. The letter also said in case of difficulty the DMs were free to get back to him. "In many cases the DMs failed to understand the spirit of GO. They started asking petty questions like what kind of details should be collected. One of the DMs even asked whether it would be different from the information given to NIC which is loaded on the government of UP website," the official said. The main aim of this scheme was to get the correct picture of development at the village level. The information like money allotted for construction of roads in Ambedkar village and its utilisation in a concerned month would give a clear picture about the pace of development in a particular period of time. Similarly, social welfare schemes could be reviewed with the click of the mouse. The DMs admitted that many departments have lagged in collecting exact information. These include Department of social welfare, PWD, Department of Handicap, Department of Health, Department of basic education, Department of Minor Irrigation and Irrigation. "Now, the DMs have been asked to sent the details by September 15 so that Ambedkar villages could be digitalised at the earliest," the official said.