Govt decisions will go online in a month’s time

BANGALORE: To ensure transparency and speed up implementation of programmes, the government has decided to digitize its decisions and host them on the web. The cabinet’s decision will help citizens and officials access government orders, notifications and circulars on the net.
“Once the government issues an order, it’ll be digitally signed and hosted on the web.This simplifies and quickens intra-office correspondence and helps in speedy implementation of programmes. The will take off in a month’s time,” higher education minister V S Acharya said on Thursday. The digital signature will be done through e-token .
Subsequently, the government, through the department of e-governance , will digitize its orders made in last 10 years and put them on public domain.
Land records too
All land records will be digitized too, Acharya said, including those related to court judgments, those gifted, acquired by the government for projects as well as land conversions.
The revenue department will index these records so that citizens can get information at the click of a mouse. In the first phase, scanning of land records will be undertaken at 29 centres.
3,200 acres for industries
The cabinet approved acquisition of over 3,200 acres of land to set up cement plants and sugar industries in north Karnataka. Lands sought for educational and religious institutions has also been okayed.
Some firms and the extent of land they had sought: Sri Cements (Rajasthan) — 1,790.32 acres in Sedam taluk of Gulbarga; India Cements Limited (Chennai) — 1,666.2 acres in Chincholi taluk of Gulbarga; Dalmia Cements Ventures Ltd (Delhi) — 544.5 acres in Sedam; Hothur Ispat Pvt Ltd. — 233 acres in Kudithini, Bellary; N K Utilities Ltd — 170.19 acres; Alagavadi Beereshwara Sugar Company — 143.09 acres in Raibagh taluk.
Siemens' bial equity sale put off
The cabinet deferred the issue of Siemens’ equity sale in Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL). Hyderabad-based GVK Power and Infrastructure is buying 14% of Siemens’ 40% stake in the consortium. With this, the share position in BIAL will be: Siemens 26%; Zurich Airport 5%; Karnataka government 13%; Union government (AAI) 13%; GVK Power and Infrastructure 43%, the largest shareholder. BIAL is now valued at Rs 4,378 crore, almost $1 billion. The airport currently handles 12 mn passengers; it is expanding Terminal 1 to handle 20 million.
TIMES VIEW
The government's plan to digitize its orders and upload them on a website is welcome but raises more questions than offers solutions. Even as it makes this announcement, the government neither outlines how it will execute this plan, nor sets a time-frame for it. Unless the government has some clarity on this, the plan could well be a well-intentioned idea lost in the thickets of red tape.