Telangana Secretariat sets ball rolling to go paperless

Hyderabad: Bidding adieu to the decades-old traditional practice of cumbersome delivery of services in the State administration , the Telangana State Secretariat is all set to go 100 per cent paperless and e-office system will come into force by July end . Once the advanced system is in the place, every file, document and order will be preserved in digital format and circulated among the officials from Section Officers to Secretary of Department for its approval through the e -office in a stipulated Stime.

The new digitised e-office system will also come as an viable alternative to help the government which is struggling to speed up the governance in the Corona crisis. 50 per cent of the employees have been asked to work from home following the spike in the positive cases every day.

The basic objective of the adoption of e-office system is to put an end the delay in the clearance of the files and check the growing red- tapism in the functioning of the government and delivery of services to the needy instantly.

All the departments have already been asked to furnish the details of their readiness in terms of technical expertise to adopt the new e-office system in two days. It is mandated every department should appoint a Nodal officer and a IT expert will be available to install the paperless administrative mechanism.

State Secretary (GAD, Political) Vikas Raj and IT officials held a high level meeting and reviewed the government readiness to shift to e -office system under the " Digital India " initiative taken up by the Union government. The Centre has put the digitisation of administration a pre condition to get more central assistance in the future.

Fool proof technology to check hacking of the computer systems, classified information and access to the e - files by every official from anywhere will be the added advantages of the new e office system. Officials said that the Secretary of the department concerned will have access to all files and monitor the status of the progress during the file processing anytime. The Section officers will be held directly responsible if any delay in the file movements. Currently, there is no specific official mechanism to track the file movement in the Secretariat .The higher authorities are oblivious of file status unless the Section Officers update them . Top officials said that the GAD has set July 8 as deadline to the digitalisation of all files and by July 9 , all the officials n every section should undergo required training acquaint the knowledge on e-office system.