Uttarakhand may have come under President’s rule on March 27 but more than a fortnight later, some departmental websites of the State continue to display former Chief Minister Harish Rawat as the present CM while two other former State Ministers are being presented as incumbent Ministers of their respective departments.
Apart from this, the link to the website of one of the departments listed on the State Government’s official website diverts the internet user to the website of a Chinese mining and construction machinery company. Such blunders on the official websites of the State Government and various departments raises questions about the condition of the State’s official cyber networking tasks.
The Uttarakhand Government portal uk.gov.in provides a convenient means for various e-tasks incorporated into the Government system, apart from which it also provides important information related to various Government schemes, facilities and departments.
The website also displays links to the websites of about 50 Government departments, most of which provide the desired access to the official website of the department concerned. However, some of these links lead to websites displaying incorrect information which surprisingly does not appear to have been noticed by the authorities concerned. Clicking the link to the Information Department website (uttarainformation@gov.in) takes one to the home page of the department where nothing major seems to be amiss.
However, as one goes through the content displayed below Governor Krishan Kant Paul’s photograph, a link to ‘Digester Management’ may cause bemusement till one clicks on the link and reaches the official website of Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre. The spelling error is only a part of the various anomalies and incorrect information on Government websites.
Clicking the link to Sugarcane and Sugar diverted this correspondent to the site of a Shanghai based mining and construction machinery company at the URl sugarcaneua.in. Further on, the link to the official website of the Department of Higher Education (he.uk.ov.in) where on the home page, just below the Governor’s photograph, another photograph of former Minister Indira Hridayesh presents her as the State Higher Education minister. Similarly, the the home page of official website of the Social Welfare Department (socilwelfare.uk.gov.in) displays photographs of Harish Rawat as chief minister and Surendra Singh Negi as the Social Welfare minister.
The hit-counter on the Uttarakhand Government website (uk.gov.in ) on Sunday evening had reached 3,27,555.
At a time when the authorities lay stress on cyber facilitation to bring about transparency and enhance work efficiency through departmental websites in public interest, the incorrect information displayed on some Government sites presents a bemusing state of affairs.
Since imposition of president’s rule, Governor KK Paul has held regular meetings with officials and stepped up the pace of work execution by various departments. However, it remains to be seen whether the authorities will act as required to correct the wrong information and other problems regarding official websites of the Government.