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After messing up the laptop donation drive for students, the Uttar Pradesh government is now toying with the idea of giving 30,000 tablets to its revenue officials to encourage governance in a more organised manner, reports The Times of India.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led government had previously handed out free laptops to about 10,000 to intermediate students in a bid to encourage them to pursue higher studies. However, against a target of more than 15 lakh laptops to be distributed among students passing Class 12, only 79,491 have been given away. Official sources cite frequent changes in the state secondary education department and the dwindling interest of the political leadership as the two main reasons behind the slow pace of the project.
Tablets to streamline governance (Image Credits: Getty Images)
Elaborating on the government’s current plans, Anil Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary, Board of Revenue said that when a citizen approaches the revenue department requesting any service, his request will reach the “lowest field functionary of the department."
Kumar added that the cost to provide roughly 30,000 tablet PCs to its revenue officials including lekhpals and tehsildars, will be around Rs 30 crore, of which Rs 10-20 lakh may be used for developing the relevant software for the tablets. “It may take nearly six months to make the software relevant and user-friendly," he said.
Kumar also said that the tablets will make the lekhpals more accountable and it will be ensured that they do not use it for recreation alone. While Kumar did not specify as to whether the National Informatics Centre or a private firm would design the software, he said they were open to both options at the moment. “At present we are focusing on developing the best possible software to deal with the huge amount of data,” he said.
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