It is said that Knowledge is power. But knowledge requires information and information also well connected and concievable.
When I read in newspaper that Govt. Dept, Municipal council or village
panchayat cannot trace the files of resolutions and project design of
Sheri Nalla project and the issue of distribution system of treated water for irrigation has remained unresolved for a long time. I got surprised how the data and records became untracable when most people in Sangli know each and every event in Sheri Nalla pollution which has remained as the source of pollution in every summer.
Ref : https://www.esakal.com/paschim-maharashtra/dhulgaon-scheme-unreliable-farmers-303230
सांगलीतील शेरीनाल्याचे पाणी, त्यावर आधारित गाजलेल्या निवडणुकांतील राजकारण हे सर्वश्रुत आहे. त्यात ...
महापालिका योजनेच्या कराराची माहिती महापालिकेसह जीवन प्राधिकरण मंडळ अन् ग्रामपंचायतीकडे उपलब्ध नाही. तत्कालीन मंत्री आर. आर. पाटील यांच्या सूचनेनुसार ठराव दिले; मात्र त्याचे इतिवृत्तही सध्या उपलब्ध नाही. याचा गैरफायदा मंडळ घेत आहे. एकूणच गोंधळाची परिस्थिती आहे.
I felt very sorry for state of affairs being myself an environmental engineer and participant in the Sheri Nalla diversion design scheme.
I just compared this with my experience in USA and felt the need to write this blog.
For last six years I am compiling comprehensive information about San Fransisco bay area in California state for our newly launched website mysiliconvalley.net as the first offshore project. Based on the experience of such work in developing mysangli.com and mykolhapur .net portal websites, I tried to collect information from library books and normal news media websites.
Soon, I realized that huge information is available for each field like history, geo-physical and environmental information, utility infrastructural services, transport, housing, Shops, businesses, flora and fauna,education, health, law, city and county administration. All the data was with quantitative and statistical data, images, thematic maps in great detail both at government level as well as many private agencies and organizations. I realized that compilation of such data is is just impossible for me except to jot down source links of these datasets.
Moreover all data in dynamic and is updated regularly.
The work of developing such data must have required large manpower and huge investments. All this work was done by using thousands of It personnel from India and other countries. I know many companies in India who are doing such work for many advanced countries.
In India, digitization has just started at few places. All the literature in different languages is non transferable being locked in print media. All official records are locked in physical paper files in different languages and formats and distributed at many levels and places. I had to search for my birth and marriage certificates by visiting many offices in Satara and Pune and finally had to get them attested by notary.
Personal data is not so important, but legal documents, bank registers, land records, property documents, project drawings and society or administrative approvals and registrations lie in heaps of paper files and become untraceable, or get lost in fire or flood thus wiping out historical records.I know many incomplete irrigation systems also have this issue of non
traceable records.It is possible the such files might have been stolen,
destroyed or kept untraceable by some to their advantage.
Goernment of India has started digital India project with major initiative and publicity, however, lot has to be done at ground level at many places. It is necessary to digitize all available documents and records must be atleast stored digitally as scanned documents on priority basis. Conversion to searchable, readable and analyzable data is next step. Government departments cannot handle this task as they lack necessary skilled manpower and the quantum of work is very huge.
