Digital Family Issue 89 November 2013 November 2013 | Page 7

1 to 30th November 2013

Postmortem of Goa Government Websites !

W

hen smaller and seemingly underdeveloped states in
the nation have rapidly put in place core IT infrastructures such as SWANs (State Wide Area Network),
SDC(State Date Centers) and CSC(Citizen Service Centers) s and
shifted their focus to providing easy, safe, and affordable access to
public welfare programs through ‘front-end’ delivery channels like
e-Seva or e-Suvidha or Lok Mitra Kendras we in Goa are still grappling with our haphazard Goa Broad Band Network (GBBN) and
almost disoriented State data center , Citizen Service Centers and
websites.
Basic mechanisms of G2C information dissemination in the new age
era - the Government websites, are almost in deplorable conditions in
Goa. The Digital Family team tried to visit and analyse some of these
websites. During the process we also compared our websites with the
portals and websites of some of the other states in the country. Here
is a quick review of our depressing journey through this front end
of Goa’s E-Governance initiative. Many of these websites are static
with age old data. Searching through these websites for any information is an ordeal in its own right. Small and most obvious pieces
of information like contact numbers are not provided on these sites
leave aside working email ID-s. Wherever there is information one
weird pattern followed observed was the information was uploaded
as PDFs. We guess the uploading becomes easier but searching for
information by wading through these PDFs is a nightmare. When
it is a policy document or an order or a notice one can understand ,
but just uploading PDFs after PDFs expecting people to download
them and search for small tit bits of information doesn’t make sense
any way!

Information & Publicity Department
The objective of any states Information and Publicity department
is to effectively propagate the ideas, schemes, policies of the Government through the mass media. Information & Public Relations
Department is considered to be the nodal agency of the Government of a state for disseminating information on various activities
of the Government to the people through the media and providing feedback to the Government on important matters reflected in
the media.
Our Goa Government also claims that “ Department of
Information and Publicity has taken various initiatives
to propagate e-Governance services and benefits to citizens
through workshops, advertisements in leading newspapers,
hoardings, etc.”
But sadly though, the Information and Publicity department cannot leverage the best form of mass media in the information age –the
internet, as it does not have a website of its own. The department’s
website was hacked by Turkish hackers way back in 2007. Since
then no initiatives have been taken to restart the website. One can
find comprehensive information on websites of the Information &
Publicity departments of States like Kerala (http://www.prd.kerala.
gov.in/) which include contact Information of all Governement Departments, Email Directory, Statistical Data, Reports and Documents,
Media Accreditations , Schemes, important Government orders and
notifications and guidelines, new appointments ,and so ?????????????(???????????????????Q?????????5???????????????????)?????????()
?????5???????=??????]???????Q?????????????????????????????)???????????L???????
?????5????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????????????????????????]????)????????????????-??????5?????????I???????????????????????)????????
?????????????????????%??????????????????????????)
4????????????????????????M?????????????????????????????)
4??????????????????????????????????
7?e???????I????????(???????A???????????????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????
?????5??????????????????Q??)-????????????????????????????????????????
?????5???????)A????????????I?????????????L???
????
???????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????()5??????M???%???????????A????????????????]????()-????????????]????()1?????????????????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????????????????????)???????????????????????????????????????????)??????)%????????????????????????????????????UI0)??????????????????? ???????????????????????????????+?a]?????U????
??????????d???????????????????????????)?????UI0?((0