One such centers in mountain locked Kishtwar district is testimony to the fact. The CIC centre in Kishtwar town, being operated by Rural Development Department, has become an inaccessible quarter. Residents allege that the centre was being used only by the staff members of the office, while the locals were being denied any access.
Younis, a post graduate student of Jammu University, said that initially there were about fifteen computers in the CIC centre and all of them were functional. With the passage of time, he said, 14 of them have become non functional as these have been replaced by the inferior quality systems.
Armed with high-tech internet facilities by means of V-SATs, the Centre has not enrolled any local desirous of accessing the facility till date and no account has been maintained for the fee paid by some students, who were earlier trained by the RDD.
The establishment of the information technology centre took place after need was felt to provide citizens easy access to information, education, entertainment and health services. The centers were also deemed to provide a platform for e-governance, e-learning and other IT enabled services in the state.
Sources said that in the year 2000, government of Jammu and Kashmir in the first phase decided to cover 60 of the total 135 blocks in the state.
A senior officer from the RDD ministry said that each centre is well-equipped with infrastructure including one server machine, five client systems, one Laser Printer, one Dot Matrix Printer, a modem, a LAN hub, TV, Webcam and two UPS (1KVA, 2 KVA). Each Centre is connected to the network through a remote VSAT.
Each CIC, he said, has two CIC Operators (CICOs) for managing the centers and providing services to the public. CIC operators have been trained to manage the centers, provide services and impart training on basic computer operations and software packages to visitors, he added.
However, the scenario is completely different in CIC Kishtwar. The locals alleged that most of the infrastructure is missing from the centre. “We have even approached ACD Kishtwar in this regard but nothing has been done so far,” Abass, a local student added.
The Block Development Officer (BDO) Kishtwar, Kishori Lal, was not available for the comment.
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Quelle/Source: GreaterKashmir, 14.04.2008
