How seriously Jharkhand State Information Commission is working towards ensuring flow of information in the state can be easily gauged with the fact that the frontline website of the commission has vanished from the world wide web.
Courtesy, the state government that forgot to get the domain name registered and the site is now languishing with a Portuguese host, subject to renewal. The domain name of Jharkhand State Information Commission expired on August 10 and the commission is presenting an array of reasons which might have caused it. Digitisation of records, website upgradation and technical faults are the reasons cited by JSIC officials for an expired domain name; they sincerely assure that work is going on in this direction. But the exact reason why the domain name expired eludes the functionaries of JSIC.
“It could be inaccessible due to the upgradation work being done for uploading digitised records on the website... Yes, that’s what has happened. The website will start working in a week or two,” said JSIC Secretary Bablu Murmu, when enquired about the reason behind the inoperative webpage. However, it could not be established how the digitised records will be published on an out of order web portal.
After Odisha-based luminous Infoways Pvt ltd, the website is being handed over to JAP IT, in order to bridge gaps and cut costs. But as of now, the website is without any supervising authority. “The process of handing over the website management right now is yet to be completed, call it in its transition phase if you will. As of now, neither luminous nor JAP IT is in-charge of the web portal. As far as renewal of website is concerned, if we are asked to, we will take required measures,” stated JSIC lDC Mohammad Majid, who is working on digitisation of commission’s records.
Meanwhile, the downed web portal has burdened the already strained proceedings at JSIC. “Despite the manpower crunch and lack of job-facilitating infrastructure, the three Information Commissioners here are taking up to 90 cases a day and half of them are being resolved. The out of action website has added to the work pressure,” said Information Commissioner P.R. Das. The case details and hearing dates, which used to be available at the commission’s website, are right now unavailable to RTI plaintiffs.