Endowment department e-office faces teething troubles

Hyderabad: The plans of the Endowments Department to go online in the form of e-office system failed to take off in subordinate offices even after three years after it was proposed, thanks to the lack of basic infrastructure.

The Endowments Department had proposed to go online with all the office work from June 1, 2018. The idea was to bring transparency in clearing the files in electronic format and tracking of the files in the department.

To begin with, the department had proposed to start from the head office. The decision was taken after a review meeting by the Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy. The Minister had then directed the officials to have an e-office format so that there is utmost transparency in the day to day affairs of the department and to avoid the corruption allegations.

However, even after three years, the proposed move was restricted to head office alone. The officials who wanted to expand these services in the building of the head office did not fetch any result. According to a senior official, the Information and Technology department was working on the software for implementing the online services. The department staff had also undergone training. Though it was proposed to extend the e-office in regional offices, there has been no progress. The subordinate offices too do not have the online facility and still the manual filing is done, sources said.

Sources said that lack of funds was one of the reasons for the extension of online services. "For an online system, every section should at least have a computer but there is no system even in a wing and in such circumstances how can an online system can be put in place," said an official. The official further said that the pandemic had also impacted the progress from more than a year, as either the employees had to work from home or came to office in limited numbers.

The department has been focusing on the electronic mode with online services getting started in some of the major temples in the State. The plan was to have online services in eight major temples in the State including Yadadri, Vemulawada, Basara and others. The online services have been started in all the major temples in the State.