Ludhiana, Patiala Try Out E-Governance

The government of Punjab is fast realising the advantages of the Internet, with the administration of Ludhiana and Patiala going in for electronic-governance (e-governance) in a major way. For instance, through the Internet, local administration can now come to the rescue of non-resident Indians who find their property in Patiala being sold to someone else in their absence.

The Patiala administration has recently started a site called www.patiala.org to cater to the complaints of the non-resident Indians and help them maintain their links with the city.

Similarly, the Ludhiana administration's site www.ludhianacorp.com contains a lot of information on the city, and the administration is also planning to open four kiosks in the city where people can directly contact the official concerned.

 

While the Patiala site is fully operational, the Ludhiana site is likely to be fully operational next month. The names of the officials of different departments as well as their contact numbers have been put up on the site.

"The site was started under the guidance of the deputy commissioner of Patiala and it gives complete information on the happenings in the city. He has commissioned a trainee of Punjab Civil Services to look into these complaints as soon as possible.

"This is a new concept for the government here and that is why we are initially focusing on non-resident Indians. However, in the long run we plan to extend services to the local people as well," says Tejinder Singh of Futura Internet Services, which has designed both the sites.

The Patiala site has already received various complaints and requests for help from NRIs. One person lodged a complaint and requested the railways to find his parents who were separated from each other at Ambala station on a visit to India.

The railway authorities found his father and reunited him with his wife.

Inquiries have also been made by students doing research on the city and on adoption of children.