Govt staff to communicate only on email

All government files will soon move faster from one department to another, thus reducing the delay in decisions and implementation of various important projects. Sayli Udas Mankikar reports.

All government files will soon move faster from one department to another, thus reducing the delay in decisions and implementation of various important projects. From March, all official government communication will happen on email.

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Chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad issued the diktat on February 11 to speed up the decision-making process, for cutting costs and to save paper. The order calls for all offices to equip themselves with necessary equipment — computers, broadband connections and scanners — all government employees to get email addresses, and if possible digital signatures activated before February 28, 2011.

Departments, which directly deal with citizens, will need to identify services like providing applications, forms, bill payments, and make sure that they function properly.

“Subject to technology innovation, this is a welcome step and much needed. Documents will travel from one responsible layer of officials to another with minimum handling, which will make the process more transparent,” said former chief secretary DM Sukhtankar.