Patna to get Metro Status by February: Choubey
Patna: January 3, 2008
 Urban Development Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Thursday inaugurated the so-called 'dynamic web site' of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) amidst announcement of the government's decision to give Patna the status of a metropolitan city.
"We have already done the ground works and completed all the formalities for the change in the status of the city of Patna and are awaiting approval from the Cabinet," Choubey said adding a formal announcement to this effect would be made sometime in February.
Talking about the PMC web site, Choubey said the facility was a giant leap in the direction of the dream of implementing e-governance in the state.
"One can acquire vital information about the city, obtain birth or death certificates with the click of a computer mouse; bid on tenders offered by the government and many other things through this web site," an excited Choubey said.
Sadly, a quick look at the web site by the PatnaDaily team found it to be yet another typical 'governmentish' web site that leaves much to be desired. Most links did not work during the test run and useless text filled important web real estate. An equally worthless web poll widget occupied some space on the left and the blue-lined background flickered enough during the scroll to give the visitor a headache.
The text under City Guide resembled an essay on Patna by a third-grader who has trouble with grammar, spelling, and punctuations with repetition of texts to meet the 'teacher's requirement of 250 words minimum'.
Despite some of the pictures lifted from PatnaDaily.Com, the main banner on the top of the page appeared very novice, to say the least.
Though the event began with the PMC Commissioner Rana Awadhesh presenting the birth certificate of Choubey's four-week old grandson to the Urban Development Minister, the staff at PatnaDaily.Com, even after spending over an hour on the PMC web site, failed to find a link where one could submit requests for birth or death certificates as touted by the officials.
An absolute lack of pertinent information on the web site left the testers disappointed casting a strong doubt on the future of 'e-governance' in Bihar.
|
