Bureaucrats nix PM's grand plan
October 14, 2014 11:43
It was a government that promised to deliver on its, well, promises, but if its handling of the attendance portal for government employees is any indication, it seems we are in for more of the same.
Ananya Sengupta reports in The Telegraph, Calcutta, that 'less than a fortnight after an attendance portal for its employees went live on September 30, the Centre has had to backtrack on its promise of transparency and make it password-protected'.
The portal, attendance.gov.in, was set up on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal initiative, the newspaper says, but that 'pressure from civil servants, who told the communication and IT ministry they were uncomfortable with the move, had prompted the portal to be closed to public scrutiny'.
'Members of our technology team felt there was no need for the general public to know when an official had clocked in or out, and how many days of leave he had taken in a month,' said an official of the National Informatics Centre, which manages government websites, reports Ananya. 'Nor is it necessary for people to know which government office an official is visiting on a given day.'
Prime Minister Modi, who has been away from the capital on the election campaign trail, however, was not consulted on making the site password-protected. Officials however feel that consulting Modi wasn't necessary since the portal hadn't yet been officially launched. "Once he returns, he will take the final call,' a source said, reports the Telegraph.
You can read the full report here.
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