<p>An online portal that tracked movement of files in government departments has been taken down by the Bommai government, angering legislators who say they are having a hard time finding out the status of their pleas now.</p>.<p>The Sachivalaya Vahini portal — which was put in place in October 2011 under the Online Digital Government Communication (ODGC) project — showed where and with whom every file and letter received by the government was. </p>.<p>The Sachivalaya Vahini's main beneficiaries were legislators, who are overloaded with requests from their constituents to keep tabs on <span class="italic"><em>tapals</em></span>, a government parlance that refers to letters or mail.</p>.<p>Personal assistants of MLAs would find out the officer concerned handling the file and follow up.</p>.<p>The government has said that it is coming up with a new citizen portal that will replace Sachivalaya Vahini, but legislators are unhappy. </p>.<p>“Our PAs are the ones who track these and they’re not able to get any information,” Nelamangala MLA Dr K Srinivasamurthy, who raised this in the Assembly, said.</p>.<p>As an example, he gave the example of the e-khata issue in his constituency. “There are properties that aren't able to pay tax because they aren’t being given e-khata,” he said, adding that his staff is not able to track letters sent to the government on behalf of citizens.</p>.<p>“Sachivalaya Vahini was closed as physical files have no meaning now because of the implementation of e-Office,” Additional Chief Secretary (e-Governance) Rajeev Chawla told <em>DH</em>. </p>.<p>Under e-Office, all files are scanned and uploaded onto the system for further transactions. Besides saving reams of paper, e-Office cuts manual movement of files and ensures speedy clearances. All secretariat offices have moved to e-Office.</p>.<p>From October 1, deputy commissioners, zilla panchayat chief executives and others started moving all files to government secretaries through e-Office only. </p>.<p>Former IT minister Priyank Kharge, who pushed the use of e-Office when he was in office, said ‘inexperienced’ PAs struggle to find out the status of files. “On top of that, there's a black box and we don't know what's happening now,” the Chittapur MLA said. </p>.<p>Seema KP, director, e-Office project, said the new portal is under development. “We have requested the NIC to provide the application programming interface,” she said.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>
<p>An online portal that tracked movement of files in government departments has been taken down by the Bommai government, angering legislators who say they are having a hard time finding out the status of their pleas now.</p>.<p>The Sachivalaya Vahini portal — which was put in place in October 2011 under the Online Digital Government Communication (ODGC) project — showed where and with whom every file and letter received by the government was. </p>.<p>The Sachivalaya Vahini's main beneficiaries were legislators, who are overloaded with requests from their constituents to keep tabs on <span class="italic"><em>tapals</em></span>, a government parlance that refers to letters or mail.</p>.<p>Personal assistants of MLAs would find out the officer concerned handling the file and follow up.</p>.<p>The government has said that it is coming up with a new citizen portal that will replace Sachivalaya Vahini, but legislators are unhappy. </p>.<p>“Our PAs are the ones who track these and they’re not able to get any information,” Nelamangala MLA Dr K Srinivasamurthy, who raised this in the Assembly, said.</p>.<p>As an example, he gave the example of the e-khata issue in his constituency. “There are properties that aren't able to pay tax because they aren’t being given e-khata,” he said, adding that his staff is not able to track letters sent to the government on behalf of citizens.</p>.<p>“Sachivalaya Vahini was closed as physical files have no meaning now because of the implementation of e-Office,” Additional Chief Secretary (e-Governance) Rajeev Chawla told <em>DH</em>. </p>.<p>Under e-Office, all files are scanned and uploaded onto the system for further transactions. Besides saving reams of paper, e-Office cuts manual movement of files and ensures speedy clearances. All secretariat offices have moved to e-Office.</p>.<p>From October 1, deputy commissioners, zilla panchayat chief executives and others started moving all files to government secretaries through e-Office only. </p>.<p>Former IT minister Priyank Kharge, who pushed the use of e-Office when he was in office, said ‘inexperienced’ PAs struggle to find out the status of files. “On top of that, there's a black box and we don't know what's happening now,” the Chittapur MLA said. </p>.<p>Seema KP, director, e-Office project, said the new portal is under development. “We have requested the NIC to provide the application programming interface,” she said.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>
