National Informatics Centre hits e-pass project
Government had set May 1 as target date; but it is yet to cross the testing phase
Kochi: The state government’s ambitious plan to introduce e-passes for the transport of granite and sand has suffered inordinate delays with National Informatics Centre (NIC) is yet to complete the project in a way to meet the security standards of directorate of Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification(STQC).
“The IT Mission has made it clear that the project can be uploaded on the State Data Centre even for testing only if it is cleared by the STQC,” sources familiar with the project told Deccan Chronicle.
“STQC has meanwhile upgraded its software, which the NIC is yet to do, leaving the project in limbo.” It is understood that attrition of programme developers at NIC has hit the project badly.
Security is paramount for the project since it involves a lot of sensitive information including money transaction.
“We are yet to plug several security holes in the project, and it can happen only when NIC is able to give us a foolproof product,” the sources said.
The project, part of the Kerala Online Mining Permit Awarding Services (KOMPAS) initiative, aimed at making most processes such as submission application for mineral movement permits, payment of application fee, royalty and other payments, tracking of status of processing of applications, generation of ePass and filing of returns online.
The government had set May 1 as the target date to launch the service but it is yet to cross even the testing phase.
The project was expected to check the rampant misuse of paper passes, which helped the sand and quarry mafia benefit from the provisions in the existing system and exploit the state’s mineral wealth with no monetary benefit accruing to the state government.