Hiccups to CM Chandrababu Naidu's hi-tech plans

Vijayawada: Tech-savvy Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has once again focused his concentration on the use of technology in the administration, but what transpires at the grassroot level is quite contrary to his good intentions.

Thousands of students have not been able to apply for the fee reimbursement scheme after the state government introduced linkage to white ration cards. Students who did not have ration cards could not apply for their renewal either. But those having ration cards too did not find their names figuring in the computerised data while some people’s details were just missing from the list. There have been several technical lapses in the upgradation of the system, with a huge number of  students having been thus excluded from the process of applying for fee reimbursement.

P. Bhavya, who is in her third year of B.Tech, said that she got her fees  reimbursed successfully for the first two years, but she could not apply this year in the absence of a ration card after her father abandoned the family. She is waiting for the government’s fresh orders.

A senior official said, on condition of anonymity, that several names had not been uploaded in the computer’s data and computer linkage would take  another one or two years to implement the schemes successfully. The government was aiming to deliver effective administration, but people were facing new problems, said K. Appa Rao, father of a  student.

The situation is not different in the municipal department. A huge number of grievances are pen-ding for redressal with the municipal and police departments. The officials say that some more time was needed before they could introduce technology in the administration. For example, Davuluri Sudarshana Rao, who is a retired head of department at Sarada College, complained at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation’s computerised grievance cell in May, seeking action against his neighbour who was occupying his site and constructing a building there.

The civic authorities had conducted a survey two months after the building was completed, but still no action has been taken. Thousands of applications are similarly pending with the revenue and police departments where a staff crunch exists.