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| Amid e- governance claims, digitizing libraries still a dream in J&K | | Project initiated in 2017 yet to see day’s light | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 16: Tall claims of e- governance in Jammu and Kashmir seem to have fallen flat with digitization of libraries- a project initiated way back in 2017- still in limbo.
According to the details available with Early Times the project to connect the libraries in Jammu and Kashmir with each other and digitize them for the book readers was initiated in 2017 and it was claimed that the project will be completed within months. However, nearly four years have passed and there is no headway into the project till date.
The story goes back to December 13, 2017 when the government rolled out an initiative to link up with the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) to provide free access to the state’s students and academicians of around 1.5 crore downloadable e-books and journals.
Pertinent to mention that NDLI is an online repository of e-books under the aegis of Union Human Resource Development Ministry. It has been developed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. The learning resources include e-books, journals, articles, thesis, manuscripts, audio and video lectures. The NDLI department has computerized all district and some tehsil-level libraries in J&K and was in the process of making all libraries fully digitized in a more user-friendly way.
As per the sources, some books have been digitized but they haven’t been made available for reading to the online users. The concerned department is yet to make any date public when the project will be dedicated to the public.
Meanwhile, keeping such an important project in limbo is a reflection of how the government’s e- governance plan has been undermined by those at the helm in Jammu and Kashmir.
There has been very little compliance with Section 4 of the legislation which makes it obligatory for a public authority [department falling under RTI Act] to “maintain all its records and indexed in a manner and form which facilitates the right to information.” It also calls for ensuring that “all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the state on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated.”
What is more ironic is that the State Chief Information Commissioner in the year 2011 had formally informed the State Chief Secretary that there is not so encouraging response from Public Authorities with regard to implementation of Section 4 of the Act.
As per the sources within the government, lakhs of rupees out of the state exchequer were invested in introducing Information Technology (IT) and e-Governance in the day to day working of the organization.
It is yet to be seen now whether in times of COVID-19 when public libraries have been shut, the government will make the libraries available in the cyber space to benefit students, scholars, book lovers and common masses. For now, it is wait and watch. |
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