Kolkata Community Portal || Kolkata Community Portal - News, Reviews, Comments & Discussion

Industry agency's site quiet on SEZ, land acquisition

By Mrs Gupta, Section News
Posted on Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 04:10:05 AM EST

Investors are headed for West Bengal. The message is loud and clear on www.wbgov.com, the state government's official website. But Nandigram, land acquisition or SEZ are not important for investors coming to West Bengal, to believe the official website of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC).

The site, www.wbidc.com, does not mention the Nandigram debate even once. There is not a single word on land acquisition or Special Economic Zones either.

Advertisement
There is no contemporary material to be had, and as for content, they are at best incomplete and irrelevant in the context of current developments in the state.

The contents highlight that WBIDC -- the self proclaimed "premier agency of the Commerce and Industries department" -- has taken a safe route, steering clear of all unpleasant issues.

On to the Information and Cultural Affairs department's website, despite the fact that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee holds the portfolio, the site suffers from the same malaise. Significantly, the department plays a key role in coordinating the process of maintaining and updating website contents.

But the department's own web page on www.wbgov.com was last updated on June 21, 2006. The link for "more details" at www.tathyabangla.org is inoperative.

Even the official press releases issued by the Information and Cultural Affairs department are not adequate: only 10 releases are posted for the entire month of March.

'Difficult to upload'
The I&C department runs a Government to Consumer Portal Lab, which uploads any changes in information posted on each department's websites. The departments are expected to provide details of the changes in a soft copy.

But Anindya Ganguly, the nodal officer of I&C department, said: "We have only five persons working in the portal lab. It is difficult to upload the changes unless the departments send soft copies to us."

Click on "Full Story" for more...

Officials said departments have access to the website and can make the necessary changes as and when required. "But most departments do not have adequate trained staff to carry out this simple task," an official at the Writers' Building said.

More interestingly, the official said numerous restrictions and red-tape make it difficult for departments to make changes on their own. "Even if the concerned official is skilled enough to update the website, a small change will require consent from several quarters before it is executed."

The state government, meanwhile, does not have a clear-cut policy on the issue.
The websites www.wbgov.com or www.banglarmukh.com was floated in 2003 by TCS-Webel ASP, a collaboration between Tata Consultancy Services and WEBEL, the nodal agency for the state IT development. The portal has a dedicated server maintained by TCS.

WEBEL-ASP, on its part, earns monthly revenue amounting to Rs 2 lakh from the state government. In return, the government can post its advertisements in the space. The revenue earned in turn is used to pay TCS and staff at the portal lab, stationed at I&C department.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC), which designed some of the state department websites, is not impressed either. "We have no say in the content posted by the departments. It is also unfortunate that some of these websites are not being updated," said Subir Roy, State Informatics Officer, NIC.

Roy said the NIC sends regular reminders to the departments to update their websites. "It (informing each department) is not our job," he said, "but at times NIC comes into disrepute for the departments' failure to update their sites regularly."

< IIMs Will Now Wait For Govt Green Signal | City Goes Waterless, CESC Repair Work Disrupts Supply; Will be Normal on Monday, Assures Civic Body >