NEWS-INDIA: Orissa starts e-governance with administrative teleconference

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

India-IT-Orissa
Orissa starts e-governance with administrative teleconference

by Jatindra Dash, India Abroad News Service

Bhubaneswar, Jan 8 - Orissa began its e-governance march over the weekend
with the first major teleconference of district chiefs through the
indigenous INSAT-3B satellite.

Chief Secretary D.P. Bagchi held the teleconference with the district chiefs
of Bolangir, Kalahandi, Jharsuguda, Sundergarh, Angul, Boudh, Sambalpur,
Subarnapur, Deogarh, Bargarh and Nuapara through the Gramsat project on
Saturday, said Gandharba Behera, the chief executive of the Orissa Remote
Sensing Application Center (ORSAC).

The state government, assisted by the Indian government's Department of
Space, established ORSAC in 1984 at Bhubaneswar under the Department of
Science and Technology.

Saturday's was the first administrative teleconference of 12 district chiefs
through satellite, Behera said. Although some other states conduct
teleconferences, this was the first time a conference like this took place
in Orissa on such a large scale, he said.

The chief secretary talked to the district chiefs from the ORSAC
transmission studio in Cuttack, about 25 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.
"Earlier the uplinking facilities were not in the state and we were
operating via Ahmedabad (Gujarat). The facilities have been made available
to us since November 2000," Behera told IANS.

"We have television sets in 30 districts, 50 blocks and in 30 'gram
panchayats' (village councils). The computers are directly linked with the
transmission studio through INSAT-3B satellite. Whoever sits in these
centers can see and hear the person sitting at the transmission studio at
Cuttack," he said.

The chief secretary talked to the district chiefs and reviewed various
programs undertaken by the government in their respective districts, he
added.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had inaugurated the Gramsat Pilot
Project for Orissa in May last year.

India's INSAT-3B satellite, launched in March last year, is also helping
Orissa in the identification and mapping of watersheds, delineation of
suitable areas for tea, coffee, horticultural plantations, crop acreage
estimation, identification of potential firming zones in coastal waters,
route planning for roads and railway alignment and coastal zone management
planning, Behera said.

The state government has now decided to use the transmission studio more
often for such conferences, a top official said.

--India Abroad News Service