Jharkhand might have received awards for effective implementation of some schemes under e-governance but it seems to be significantly failing to convince some ‘traditionalist’ babus to embrace information technology.
So much so that despite repeated instructions, about 300 officers of the Jharkhand Administrative Service (JAS) have not opened their e-mail accounts in a period of over nine months.
The JAS officers are yet to meet the deadline issued by the personnel and administrative reforms department to open e-mail accounts and upload their bio-data on the Government website. The Government notice, published in newspapers and circulated in all the departments, was to be complied within a fortnight. It had been issued by the then Personnel cum-IT Secretary N N Sinha in August, 2012.
It was also made clear in the notice that the officers’ failure to send their ID and upload biodata will receive adverse comments about their lack of IT knowledge in their Annual Confidential Reports (ACR).
Around 400 such babus had also been penalised as they received adverse comments in the ACRs about five months back. But, that too couldn't move them much possibly because of change of guard in the personnel department, sources said.
An Under Secretary rank officer requesting anonymity said that the number of babus furnishing their e-mail accounts and bio-data to the personnel department had improved to 609 from 571 in last three months.
At present as many as 609 out of around 900 officers had made direct entry of their e-mail and bio data in the Personnel Information System (PIS) of the State Government Website run by JAP-IT.
Although the official sounded confident that the department will get requisite information of most of the officers in a couple of months, he said that convincing the ‘old’ babus was a tough nut to crack.
“Abhi tak 609 logon ka e-mail bana hai, afsar log dhamki dete hain lekin wo log sudharne waale nahi hain, dekhiye sabe log to afsare hai kisko kisko dhamkaiyega. (Till date 609 officers have made their e-mail accounts. Senior officers pressurize them but some people just cannot improve. Afterall, senior of junior all are officers whom will you keep threateningIJ),” he said.
The move to get e-mail ids and bio-data of officers was aimed at making electronic communication popular among Government staff besides expediting the government work. The diktat for uploading the biodata was taken after the department found that it did not have detailed database of all the officers.
So, the Government wanted to create a fresh database of all State service officers. The biodata comprises details like service history, promotion history, present status, general provident fund number, besides the normal information like name, address, date of birth et al.