HYDERABAD: The Inter-State Water Resources (ISWR) wing of the Irrigation department, with the help of IBM, will digitise around 5 lakh pages of documents and 2,000 blueprints. The work will be completed on a war footing and it will be completed by the end of this month. Telangana State Technology Service (TSTS) and IT Department are helping the Irrigation Department complete the herculean task. The digitisation of important documents will help officials access the information online. This is necessary in the wake of a large number of pending cases before Courts and Tribunals on sharing of river waters. A permanent record would help the officials, as neighbouring states are challenging the construction of projects sanctioned during the 1980s.
CM found the flaw
Recently, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao asked the officials to bring the copy of the GO issued in the combined AP sanctioning an irrigation project for Telangana. When the officials brought a copy of the GO, the CM pointed out that it was the second GO of that project and not the first GO. Rao then told them to bring a copy of the first GO. The officials, however, were unaware of that GO. Later, they searched for the GO asked by Rao and located it. “Most officials are uncertain as to when the project was actually sanctioned and when the first GO was issued,” an official said. This is because GOs and records had not been filed properly. The officials have now woken up to the fact that digitisation of records will help their arguments in Courts and Tribunals.
Topmost priority
“The digitisation work is the topmost priority for us. There will be search options for every project. The officials can access the information at the click of a mouse,” Irrigation Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar told Express after holding a meeting with the officials at Jal Soudha on Thursday. The physical documents too would be stored in a scientific manner protecting them from termites. IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Rajan too held discussions on the digitisation project recently with Rajat Kumar.