Pakistan to have e-districts

["Irfan Khan" <khania@super.net.pk>]

Introduction of e-district soon 


Bureau Report 

ISLAMABAD, March 3: The National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) on 
Friday announced the introduction of e-district in the country 
claiming that all basic and even minute data of each and every 
district of Pakistan would be available on computer till August, 
2001. 

Under what is named as National Reconstruction Management System 
(NRMS) computerised information about district officials, their 
strength and career; school, hospital, dispensaries etc and their 
staff; roads, buildings and departments; development projects and 
schemes etc. will be available. 

Speaking at a news conference, a NRB spokesman said that as a model 
project the NRMS had already been introduced in two districts -
Chakwal and Attock- of Rawalpindi. The spokesman also demonstrated 
the system and showed how even minute information about the district 
could be accessed without visiting a government office or department. 

This computerisation in two districts, he said, had cost only Rs 1 
million. The NRMS concept, he said, had already been approved by the 
government while the provincial governments had welcomed it. 

The spokesman disclosed that the international donors had also 
appreciated the system, hinting that the NRB might get US $ 100 
million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for this very project. 

All the provincial governments, he said, had been assigned to 
implement the system in their districts till August 2001, in line 
with the model projects. 

The introduction of the e-district which, according to the spokesman, 
will be the first of its kind throughout the world, will help the 
government in making better policies through ever- ready updated 
data. It would also overcome the problems like ghost schools, the 
spokesman believed. 

This computerised information, he said, could be accessed by any 
citizen including the journalists who would have a better chance to 
monitor the development pace or seek any other information about any 
particular area of any specific district. 



http://www.dawn.com/2001/03/04/nat2.htm