At a time when deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal is talking of providing online services in all departments, the Patiala municipal corporation (MC), it seems, still lives in a ‘Stone Age’ as it till date does have a dedicated website. This is because of the lethargic approach of bureaucracy and local politicians, who don’t want to go online to ‘cover their misdeeds’.
Meanwhile, however strange it might seem, despite not having a website, the Patiala MC has been seriously planning to go online with its data pertaining to birth and death records.
Though the MC authorities for the past several years have been claiming that the website would be made available very soon, it seems a distant dream as of now. In cities like Jalandhar and Ludhiana, the MC has started public interface through the website and even started receiving payments through the online mode.
Even mayor Amarinder Singh Bajaj had made tall claims that the website would be launched soon, which would enable the functioning of all the branches of the MC through online, besides facilitating the residents to deposit their taxes online. But nothing concrete has been done so far.
“It’s sad that Patiala is one of most educated class city, but for every service one has to approach the MC office. Sukhbir Badal is promising big things, but in reality, the MC has done nothing to fulfill the deputy CM’s dream. It’s sad that the MC don’t have a basic website in an age when even small shops have their own websites,” said Harkirat Singh, a resident of Model Town.
{{/usCountry}}“It’s sad that Patiala is one of most educated class city, but for every service one has to approach the MC office. Sukhbir Badal is promising big things, but in reality, the MC has done nothing to fulfill the deputy CM’s dream. It’s sad that the MC don’t have a basic website in an age when even small shops have their own websites,” said Harkirat Singh, a resident of Model Town.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, the MC authorities had registered the domain, but are yet to make the website functional. The domain, it is learnt, expired on July 9, but authorities are unaware of it.
Like previous promises, mayor Amarinder Bajaj said he would make sure that the website becomes operational within the next few days. “The process of activating the corporation’s website is going on. We have outsourced the work of putting the data online and after converting the data into soft format, proper indexes will be made before uploading it on the website,” he said.
The civic body’s authorities have started the process of putting the whole date online for the convenience of people so that the residents can generate the date easily from its website.