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Computerisation at DTO offices a shabby affair

By Ron Duarah

DIBRUGARH, Feb 13 - Howsoever much the Government may proclaim computerisation of its departments, supposedly to herald �ease of doing business�, but tardy implementation has frustrated both officials as well as citizens.

Most of the time the Government servers are slow to respond to commands, and uploading documents too can be a pain, most of the time, that is.

One of the departments where many have to go to is the office of the DTO (district transport officer) in each of the district headquarters. Whether to get a driving licence or have a vehicle registered, a visit to the DTO office is a necessary pain for many. The officials at the office may be friendly, but not the parivahan.nic.in website. It is slow most of the time.

Citizens like Pratap Dey are also surprised that documents once uploaded to the website also needs to be deposited in printed hard copies at the DTO offices. �If we have uploaded our testimonials, why make us take prints and queue up at the DTO office to deposit these,� he asks.

He is also irked that fees for driving licence applications have to be paid at the DTO offices in Assam. The online payment facility on the parivahan website is not available for Assam. Another citizen here, Sandip Bordoloi quipped: �It ensures that you have to take a day off to queue up at the DTO offices.�

Local DTO office employees here are also annoyed that the entire computerisation process has been activated by fits and starts. They say they too are frustrated at the half-baked computerisation.

However, they cannot air their grievances in public and instead ask journalists privately to bring the shortcomings to the notice of the Government. �What can we do? We are here to obey,� said a senior DTO office functionary here, who requested anonymity.

Computerisation experts like Balbir Singh says once a person has uploaded his testimonials to a Government official website, there should be no reason to ask for duplicates in hard copies. The departmental officers can download these if they need prints, why harass citizens, he asked.

While some transport department officials reason with whining citizens that the computerisation process is a learning curve for the Government, and hence is taking time, and also testing the patience of the citizens. To this, Bordoloi says the Government should try and test its systems before letting these loose on the citizens. �The sufferers are us, not the person on the other side of the table,� he whines.

While a seamless computerisation is what is called for, incompetent software administration is blamed for the ills of the system. Those in the know point to the computerisation in the legal system, which is working fine � though this too gets bogged down at times � and have expressed their hope that the bureaucrats will have to shed their attitude of omniscience before the system can be made to stand and run in the rest of the departments.

A good beginning can be made at the transport department, once again. This can be followed by meaningful implementation of the right to services at the various deputy commissioners� offices.

The glitches in the GST system too can be made citizen-friendly once the babus relearn the algorithms and simplify the input processes.

Computerisation according to Singh, is like electricity: the phase/neutral/earth connections have to be in symphony.

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