Uttar Pradesh becomes the first state to initiate formation of separate IT cadre

In a pioneering initiative, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to constitute an Information Technology (IT) cadre of its own, officials said on Saturday. This is for the first time that any state government has initiated such a process, an official told IANS. A letter has been sent to principal secretaries of all departments to “constitute a cadres of IT experts for efficient and quick delivery of government services through better implementation of e-governance schemes”. Head of the departments have also been asked to constitute a virtual IT cadre, nominate two IT expert officers of the rank of special secretary and joint secretary in all government departments. Chief Secretary Deepak Singhal told IANS that “officials selected in the virtual IT cadre will be given incentive of 10 per cent of their basic pay and grade pay”. He added that selected officials will also be given support of the Information and Public Relations Department in publicity of state government schemes through social media. The Information Technology and Electronics Department has been nominated as nodal agency for constitution of virtual IT cadre and a committee headed by the Chief Secretary formed for monitoring of constitution process of virtual IT cadre. An official further informed that the idea was brainchild of Singhal who has also asked HoDs to ensure that special secretaries of this cadre, who will act as experts, will conceptualise and management of e-governance initiatives in their department, while the joint secretaries would be responsible for execution of e-governance schemes. IT cadre officers will also have to ensure improvement in internal proceedings, file movement, process re-engineering of service delivery and management of their respective departments. These officers will also work for capacity development for successful implementation of e-governance initiatives along with monitoring of government policies, standards and orders, the officer added. IANS