J&K Govt @dysfuntional.com
Official websites portray outdated information in J&K
Bijapur is one of the remotest districts in India located in Chattisgrah state. It was carved out of Dantewada district in the year 2007. This is a highly Naxal affected district and has been in the news for quite some time as there have been many attacks on the CRPF in this district by the Naxals. The news regarding landmine blasts, encounters and search operations in Bijapur is the only thing which has been highlighted by the media but when I went through the official district website of this district (www.bijapur.gov.in) I was amased. It is maintained and updated in a manner that one cannot believe that it is the same backward , naxal district of Chattisgrah. Kudos to Chattisgrah Government, but the whole credit goes to Mohammad Qaisar a young IAS officer of 2007 batch who is the district magistrate of Bijapur.  
On the other side if we go through any of the websites of our Jammu & Kashmir state one feels ashamed. Our Chief Minister has been highlighting his achievements in various sectors which includes Information Technology and E-Governance but one feels disgraced to be a resident of Jammu & Kashmir when it comes to the functioning of our administration as the official website of our Government (www.jammuandkashmir.nic.in) is totally defunct since last three years now. Our CM is considered to be a tech savvy Chief Minister but he has failed to get his official website updated and this lethargic attitude of the Government is projecting a bad image of J&K State before the outside world. When our Government has no excuses to hide its inefficiency some of our Ministers give excuses about militancy, difficult terrain & climatic conditions  etc., once they  encounter the officials of planning commission or any other Ministry of Govt of India. Bijapur is also a Naxal affected district, why the work culture is different?
 After browsing the official website of the J&K Government  www.jammuandkashmir.nic.in , a message pops up on the computer screen which reads along with an image of a person carrying a spade "the website is under construction" . This message and the image regarding under construction is being viewed by all those people who try to access the website since last more than three years now. The Govt will now try to defend itself by saying that General Administration Website (www.gad.nic.in) is operational but GAD is not the official website of J&K Govt. Even Maharashtra or Gujrat have GAD website but they have separate official websites of their respective Governments which carries details about the state , the Governor of the state , CM , his cabinet etc. But our Governments hardly bothers about this .
Coming to the District websites, almost all districts websites in J&K carry outdated information while a few of them are completely defunct.
 Let us take some examples:

Kupwara: www.kupwara.nic.in .
This website seems to have not been updated for many years.  The official telephone numbers available on the websites are not operational and may be the numbers will be operational in the office but the telephone series which may have changed few years back hasn't been corrected. The official number of DC Kupwara is out of order. When I myself tried to call him I got the reponse: " Kripya Dial Kiya Gayaa Number Jaanch Lain" (Please check the dialed number). The STD code of all the official numbers is also not available on the website. One cannot find even a single mobile number of any of the district officials on this website. The old outdated advertisement notice dating back to 17.7.2012 is still present on the website.
Rajouri District website - www.rajouri.nic.in:
The district website has a column regarding Public Information Officers ( PIO’s) and Assistant Public Information Officers ( APIO’s) who have been designated under J&K RTI Act 2009 but after opening  the link a message is flashed which reads "under updation", and one cannot access the list of these Public Information Officers (PIO’s) and Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO’s) who have been appointed to provide Information to people under State RTI Act 2009.  The list of Sarpanches and Panches cannot be opened . The outdated information regarding  Hajj 2010 is still present on the district website.

Pulwama District website : www.pulwama. nic.in
The Wrong information’s related to district officials is present on the website. For example in the telephone directory column the officers who have been transferred from the district, their names continue to be on the website. Mr Nasir Ahmad Lone was Assistant Commissioner Revenue Pulwama one year back but his name still exists there. The tourist places of Kulgam and  Shopian districts  have been shown located in Pulwama district.  

 Section 4 of State RTI Act violated: 
 Till date there has been very little compliance with Section 4 of the JK RTI Act  which makes it obligatory for a public authority to “maintain all its records and indexed in a manner and form which facilitates the right to information.” It also calls for ensuring that “all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the state on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated.” But most of the websites of J&K Govt have no information available under section 4 of J&K RTI Act 2009.

Conclusion:
The officials have been appointed by the Govt to maintain the district websites. There is a fully fledged District Informatics Officer in each district who is responsible for maintaining the district website and he has been provided some staff also. The District Magistrate (DC) is supposed to make him  do his job by supplying him the information and supervising him but it seems neither the District Informatics officer nor the DC is doing his job properly because the Government is least interested in these issues and it is not able to make the officials work.
The District Informatics Officer in Bijapur Chattisgrah gets the same salary and perks as his counterpart in Kupwara or Pulwama, but he does his job with dedication and honesty; why the officer in Kupwara or Rajouri doesn’t, is a matter of concern

Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Feb 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 8 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 9 Feb 2013 00:00:00 IST