Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India dream may have brought a sea change in digitally empowering almost everyone across India, but has miserably failed to impress the movers and shakers at Dispur.
For convenience of visitors, the government had introduced a system of e-pass for entry into the Assam State Secretariat at Dispur. The link http://103.8.249.88/applyonline illustrates what’s involved in the whole process.
But, those visitors who tried to avail the e-pass system will be able to explain how the custodians of the Assam Secretariat have made a mockery of the digital initiative.
If one logs in to the URL for a hassle free process to enter into the Secretariat complex, he will even get an SMS with a gate pass number asking him to collect the pass from Security Gate No 1.
Expecting a seamless entry, when the visitors reach Gate 1 of the Assam State Secretariat, the security personnel has no clue about the e-passes as there is no system in place.
The visitor would again need to stand in the queue and apply for the offline entry pass and get an entry into the Assam Secretariat Complex.
The online system for issuing entry pass has thus become a farce as the Secretariat staffs are probably not in a mood to replace the age old system of paper slips.
The Indian government launched Digital India campaign to ensure that the government services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure. But, when will the Assam government value Modi’s Digital India dream?