Andhra Legislators To Get Net Access

Yahoo! It's surfing time for legislators in Andhra Pradesh. Once the legislature library here is linked to the Internet, the party whips would know where to look for their missing loyal members "" out in cyberspace. The decision for a link up to the net was taken by the government and the Speaker recently.

It will then be possible for our legislators to surf in cyberspace, a proud Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who believes that only high-tech can accelerate development, said. To enable legislators to take full advantage of infotech, the government has decided to supply, free of cost, a personal computer, with all accessories, to all legislators who pick up machine basics.

Of the 283 legislators, 171 have already opted for the government's offer. They are now going through a week-long programme to get familiar with the basics of computers. Besides surfing the Net, they would also get training on accessing data bases. NIIT is providing the training. Naidu said the first thing he does every morning is to monitor the power generation, its distribution, the condition of transformers and feeder lines, the water level in different reservoirs etc. through his sophisticated laptop. He wanted the legislators to follow his example.

Within Andhra Pradesh, the government is planning to set up a sort of government-net, with distributed data warehouses in different departments and offices. Use of internet technology to access these data-warehouses would be encouraged. In his own office, the Chief Minister said, an information system has been developed using executive information system tools, encompassing a wide range of government activities.

It is now possible for him to monitor a number of governmental programmes effectively, he said. The detailed mapping of forest areas in the state was recently completed using Geographical Information Systems. It is also being used in monitoring and planning road communications in the state. Concepts of workflow are in the process of implementation in his office, Naidu said.