E-GOVERNANCE: ‘Cyber MP’: A Project Too Far?

Things have failed to move along after the hyped announcement of an MoU

between the Reliance Industries and the Madhya Pradesh State Industrial

Development Corp (MPSIDC) in June 2000 to establish a statewide network of cyber

kiosks for delivering citizens services.

It is said that even the agreement for setting up a JV company of Reliance

and MPSIDE is yet to be finalized by the state government. As a result, there

seems to be a possibility of the targeted first 500 kiosks by March this year

and 7,800 by March 2002 coming a cropper. In that eventuality, the state

government’s plan to replicate the highly acclaimed Gyandoot e-governance

model of Dhar district throughout the state may never take off. SR Mohanty, MD,

MPSIDC, tries to allay such fears, "The project might be held up for a

couple of months. We’re just being thorough." Others, however, are not so

sure.

According to informed sources, the industries, law and finance departments

are scrutinizing the JV agreement. The MoU provides for 5% equity to MPSIDC in

the JV. MPSIDC doesn’t invest but secures clearance for Reliance to lay a

4,500-km network of fiber optic cable on which cyber kiosks will run.

The government is said to be deliberately going slow in the matter. However,

to many industry watchers, the caution seems misplaced. Critics say the

government should act proactively, having already pioneered the concept of

e-governance with Gyandoot.

The network in the state is a part of the nationwide fiber optic backbone of

Reliance Telecom’s national long-distance (NLD) mesh that would eventually

cater to its convergence plans. Company sources say 400 km of cable has been

laid since the NLD project was given the go-ahead in October last year.

The state’s central location makes it crucial to NLD plans of any telecom

company. Besider, Reliance is expected to make a near-sure foray into basic

telecom services in the MP telecom circle when the center allows a free run. The

same network could service those operations as well. "Kiosks on the network

would have been a mere-add-on," says a Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL)

official. Officials say it was a cozy tie up, with a cash-strapped state

government getting Reliance to invest in its e-governance plans. Similarly,

Reliance had a government agency to clear the thorny right-of-way for laying

cables. It would eventually give Reliance a head start over other telecom

operators in NLD and the probable basic telephony operations in the state.

The whole project, according to onlookers, has been derailed due to some key

IT-savvy bureaucrats being shifted to the newly-carved state of Chhattisgarh.

While Reliance priorities have now shifted to NLD, the state government is left

completely unprepared for e-governance.

Aditya Malaviya



Cyber News Service, New Delhi