When the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi is making all effort to apply information and technology for delivering better governance, the state of Manipur has utterly failed in this respect.
The state government empanelled 7 (seven) agencies for designing, development and maintenance of 52 websites accessible to persons with disabilities for government departments and undertakings in the year 2013. Except for some existing departmental websites none of the sites were launched till yet.
After department of Information Technology opened the Financial Bid on May 14, 2013, a total number of 7 (seven) agencies namely M/S Cube Ten; M/S Globizs; M/S Hadron Techs Pvt. Ltd; M/S X-tremewave; M/S Brigosha Technologies; M/S urge Group and M/S Capital Software have been selected and a sum of Rs 1.90 lakh each has been earmarked for the work includes design, development of websites and maintenance for 3 years, according to an order by Dr Rajesh Kumar, Principal Secretary (IT), government of Manipur.
The amount has been deposited with nodal agency, Manipur State Information Technology Society (MSITS) to take up the work.
When Imphal Times contacted some of the empanelled firms enquiring about the progress of the website development, it has been reported that the work has been virtually cancelled as the Social Welfare department denied transferring the amount to Department of Information and Technology.
Instead of developing websites, the social welfare department wanted to utilize the amount for the betterment of persons with disabilities.
They also expressed displeasure over the state government’s indecisive attitude towards the implementation of the website development work.
Since the last 2 years the amount has been lying idle at Social Welfare department’s coffer due to inter-departmental issues. If the concerned authorities failed to take immediate action the sites of these department will never seen the light of the day.
