Jammu, July 27: The much hyped E-governance project to create paperless offices in Jammu and Kashmir is still a distant dream as the computer professionals in the state are not showing much interest in the jobs being offered by the government to take the project to its logical end.  
 The reason being, for the advertised vacancies requiring highly skilled professionals, the government is offering a paltry sum of Rs 10,000 that too under a contractual arrangement,
 Sources said that J&K E-Governance Agency, which recently conducted the interviews for the operators and analysts on July 12 at Srinagar shocked, the candidates when they were offered to work on such a low salary package.
 Observers said that such a treatment to the highly skilled professionals has cast a shadow on the e-governance project in the state, which is already lagging far behind in its   implementation, initiated in 2002.
 “It was indeed a shock for the candidates when they were offered the salary package. Many of them had come from New Delhi in the hope of securing a government job”, said a candidate.
 Sources said that many of the professionals have been approached by the agency to work on different projects but they find it a lackluster as in private sector packages are far better and career wise they get better opportunities.
 “How could a professional having computer engineering degree or diploma work for just few thousand rupees that too on contractual basis for one year”, said an official .
 Pertinently, after its failure to implement the e-governance projects properly in Jammu and Kashmir and displeasure shown by the Central Government, the state government last year constituted a 7-member E-Mission Team to suggest ways to implement the IT projects.
 Sources said that the team recommended a series of measures for making the government offices paperless and use the IT in providing better services to the people. However, the government has failed to attract the professionals, who are key to make the project a success.
 They said that in absence of the technical staff the functioning of the 1109 Kidmat centers proposed to provide   services to the people on doorsteps could also get affected.
 When contacted Secretary Information Technology, Manoj Diwadi said, “We can just offer this much of package for the time being but it will be reviewed in future”.
 Diwadi said that being a major project the help of the consultants from New Delhi is also being sought to streamline the entire system. However he avoided to answer why professionals were being paid such a low salary.
 Sources said that only a few persons are willing to join posts of operators, but the skilled manpower like software engineers and those needed for keeping the hardware systems running are quite sad over the attitude of the government.
 Sources said that the project was implemented to ensure transparency, quick turnaround of official files but it has become target of red tape-ism and apathy of the bureaucrats who are not showing interest in the project.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST