Punjab govt to connect all offices to state data centre

In an effort to bring transparency in its functioning, the Punjab government has started a project under which all state departments and offices will be connected to a data centre in Mohali.
"Under the project, to be completed over the next two years, various offices at the state headquarters, districts, blocks and panchayats would be interconnected, which would further be connected to a state data centre (SDC) at Mohali," a government spokesman said here today.
"The project named 'Pawan' would bring more transparency and speedy service delivery to the masses at the grassroot level," he said.
"With the completion of this project, the state government would be able to keep a close watch on the functioning of the offices at the grassroot level from the headquarters itself," he added.

The spokesperson said as part of the project, all village panchayats of the state would have Internet access in the next 18-24 months.
"For this, the Punjab government has signed a tri-partite agreement on April 12 with the Union Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) for the laying of optical fibre network in all villages across the state," he said.

In the first phase, 139 offices of the government, boards and corporations in Mohali and Chandigarh would be covered till August 31, whereas more than 2,000 offices in field would be connected with SDC by December this year, he added.

The spokesman said that by July 2013, offices of the newly created districts of Fazilka and Pathankot would also be connected with the district network centre.
Giving details of the SDC, he said that it would be operational from the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration in Chandigarh by the end of this year and will cost about Rs 50 crore.
He said that after the completion of the project, the information regarding the functioning of government offices in the state would be available with just a click of a button, "which would be a big leap in the field of administrative reforms".