Intranet
to connect Goa from Dec.
Sandesh Prabhudesai
25 October 2002
Statewide
Intranet for the state administration and lease
line along with donated computers for the students
are the two major milestones Goa plans to achieve,
using Internet technology, shortly.
While completing two-year term in
the office (including Assembly polls held in May),
chief minister Manohar Parrikar said the state
would take a major leap forward in e-governance.
The IT policy is expected to be finalised in three
months.
Taking benefit of the tiny size
of the tourist state with hardly 1.3 million population
and 3702 sq kms, the BJP government is planning
to set up Intranet facility through Internet,
for the whole state by the year end.
"It will begin with networking
the state secretariat, housing the ministers and
secretaries, next month", states Parrikar.
Following two district-level IT
kiosks, he now plans to set up 30 more such kiosks
in 11 talukas, linking the remotest area with
the state secretariat and department headquarters.
The kiosks will facilitate the people
to get several relevant forms, death and birth
registration records as well as other relevant
documents like land records etc on-line. "Besides
saving time and energy, it will also bring transparency
and controlling corruption", states Parrikar.
On the educational front, he has
already announced a scheme for all the XI standard
students to take a computer home by paying a meagre
fee of Rs 1000. Beginning it with science students
this year, the scheme will cover all streams from
the next academic year.
In addition, Parrikar is presently
negotiating with several private Internet service
providers as well as the BSNL to provide lease
line Internet connection along with this computer,
at a reasonable price, besides providing them
important educational CDs.
"Imagine what revolution it
would create when over 30,000 families even from
the remotest part of Goa will be connected through
the Internet in two years and each house will
have a computer for the whole family", he
states.
While providing computers, the government
has also planned nutritious tiffin to all the
primary students, who come hungry to the school.
As the centrally-provided rice for such a scheme
is not worth eating, the state has designed its
own meal by spending Rs 10 crore annually, while
taking the central assistance of Rs one crore.
With the annual revenue graph rising
from Rs 826 crore in 2001 to Rs 1400 crore during
this financial year, Parrikar claims he is planning
to achieve 200 per cent rise in four years, making
enough funds available for developmental works,
including infrastructure.
