Information Technology (IT) has brought far-reaching revolution in our life in current period of history. It has conquered two phenomena that dominated human life from olden days, and these are speed and suspense. Prior to IT revolution, speed and suspense dominated our lives because we wanted things to be done quickly without loss of time and also wriggle out of a state of suspense at the root of which lies uncertainty. Both of these facets have been set aside by IT. Communication and contact have assumed lightening speed and transparency has removed suspense and uncertainty. In the area of corporate business, IT has brought about mind-boggling speed and efficiency. In a way one may say that the human kind of this era has no patience to wait and not stamina to bear uncertainty.
IT has been inducted into almost all services. In particular, banking service has made phenomenal progress owing to the induction of IT. Most states in the country have introduced aspects of Information Technology into the administrative system in order to make governance efficient and transparent. Our State also woke up at proper time to realize the need and importance of file tracking system. The cabinet took the decision that File Tracking system (FTS) has to be introduced and for this purpose Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency (JKeGA) was put to work so that FTS was made operational in the civil secretariat. Actually, National Informatics Centre (NIC) had designed the File Tracking System (FTS) and numerous instructions were issued, particularly from the platform of Committee of Secretaries (CoS) about making optimum use of the system.
Adoption of FTS was prompted because the Government felt that it had several benefits and was the first step in revolutionizing the entire system of moving the files, monitoring the files and assessing the progress of governance in various departments. It catered to making governance more efficient and transparent. However, the instructions and guidelines provided did not make real impact on the Departments and other concerned functionaries despite the fact that in initial stages there was euphoric response to e-Filing concept. JKeGA provided technical and logistic facility and it appeared that gradual shift was on the cards. But after the Secretariat had shifted to Srinagar last summer, the euphoria for e-filing and tracking began to fade and was almost forgotten. Except for two or three administrative departments, no serious attention was diverted towards the new system.
Now that the Secretariat has moved to Jammu, and the Chief Minster presided over the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries, the matter of FTS came up for consideration and discussion. The CM issued clear instructions that the system has to be adopted and FTS has to become the new order of conducting business in the Secretariat.
However, it flowed from the discussions that the real bottleneck in introducing the system in full was the lack of trained manpower. There is weight in this argument. Actually, the GAD should have come out with a proposal of introducing training programme for the functionaries at the very time when Government decided to introduce the system. It would have saved a lot of time. The question why more than six months have been wasted and no step in this direction has been taken brings to fore the oft repeated excuse of long unrest in the valley this summer. It is true that owing to the disturbed conditions in the valley this summer, attendance in the Secretariat remained thin. But even in that situation, the GAD could have begun training some of the officials who managed to attend the office. Even if a small number of officials in various administrative departments had been facilitated to learn the ins and outs of electronic correspondence and file tracking system, it would have gone a long way in initializing shift to the new system.
Anyway, the Chief Secretary has issued directions for designation of Nodal Officers by all the Administrative Secretaries for necessary training by the Information Technology Department. This is a decision in right direction and with that the reach of e-filing system will gradually expand to all departments and offices. File Tracking System is a web-based application to monitor the pendency of receipts and files and assist in their easy tracking. It is actually an integrated package which has features right from diarizing of receipts/files, updating its status, opening of new files, tracking the movement of files, dispatch of letters/files and finally records management. However, one discrepancy visible in the scheme is absence of time frame for the nodal officers to pick up the ins and outs of e-Filing and its ultimate percolation down to other layers of administrative structure. It should not be difficult for the Chief Secretary to lay emphasis on time frame and take that element into consideration while the File Tracking System is being introduced.
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