Govt website has stale information

Govt website has stale information
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 14
Most of the columns of Punjab government’s official website do not have updated information.
The biodata of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who assumed charge of the post in the second half of January 2009, becomes available as one opens the website, http:// punjabgovt.nic.in. But the updated details of the state and important telephone numbers, email ids, new government orders, press statements, important events etc have been apparently considered less important.
The main feature of the website, Punjab at a glance>Agriculture-Economy’s Mainstay, shows most of the data based on more than decade-old figures.
Despite much change in status of the state, details still show the state on the top in the list of states in per capita income of the country. On details relating to the per capita availability of foodgrains per annum, it has data of 1997-98, when Punjab had the highest of 904 kg standing way above the average for the country.
To show dairy farming as ancillary avocation to agriculture getting popular, data of 1997-98 has been made available, when the production of milk touched 7.16 million tonnes. It shows per capita availability of milk of 845 gm per day was highest among all other states of India.
What’s New slot opens gradation list of IAS/PCS officers, which is marked as new, but the details lag far behind. Many of officers have been transferred from those positions, so the “unreliable” information provided here is of little use.
The slots under Important Information on welcome page, marked “new”, have almost stale details.
In this slot, the recent government order is of the District Magistrate, Rupnagar, which was issued for cyber cafes (under Section 144, CrPC) dated January 19, 2008. Further, the recent press note is regarding the 17th National Forest Games of November 4, 2008.
The e-mail directory does not have IDs of various IAS officers. Moreover, in the list, only 17 out of 20 deputy commissioners of the state have been mentioned. The e-mail directory does not have information on the Amritsar Municipal Corporation, while the rest four are there.
In the telephone directory, Barnala, Pathankot and Mohali districts have been ignored and telephone numbers of DC office, district development and panchayat office, chief agriculture office and district revenue office have not been uploaded.
Being elections days, it should be the duty of the department concerned to provide updated information for public convenience.