Karnataka govt's websites down after software migration

Access denied

The e-governance department’s decision to migrate all state government websites to a uniform format as per the Centre’s regulations is inconveniencing people, with many users and government officials complaining about being unable to access websites.

On Thursday morning, at least three government websites, including that of the e-governance and health and family welfare, were not functioning. Users were greeted with an “unauthorised action” message on trying to access these websites.

The department is in the process of updating all websites as per the parameters of the “National E-governance Service Delivery Assessment”. However, owing to lack of communication, other departments have been caught unawares about the technical snags in the process.

An official in the health and family welfare department said they were unable to upload details of the ongoing recruitment in the department.

“We have not been informed about why the website was pulled down. There has been no official communication on when it will be restored,” the official said.

Officials in the e-governance department said there were technical glitches, which would be resolved in two-three days.

“The updating of content is in progress. There could be URL redirection issues, which is taking time. The Google Search Engine Optimisation also takes more than three days and hence one might not be able to see the website,” an employee of the department explained.

There are more than 400 government websites of which about 70 have seen successful transition to the new format, the employee added.

Even as the government is yet to take a call on the reconstitution of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC), the department has pulled down the KKC website. The KKC wrapped up its work in December, 2019.

Requesting anonymity, a staff member of KKC said: "The website was taken down a fortnight ago and was restored for a brief while. For the last two days, they have pulled it down again. We are in the dark as to why this was done. The government has also not intimated anything to us about the Commission's reconstitution."

Speaking to DH, Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary, DPAR (E-governance), assured to look into it.