Umashankarias's Blog

No final action as yet on Uma Shankar: TN Govt

umashankarias — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:04:45 +0000

No final action as yet on Uma Shankar: TN Govt
Chennai | Friday, Aug 6 2010 IST

The Tamil Nadu Government today clarified that IAS officer C Uma Shankar was only placed under suspension on charges of producing fake community certificate to join the IAS cadre and no final action had been taken against him.

An official release here said based on a complaint that he had submitted fake certificate to join the IAS cadre, the government, without ignoring it, formed a three-member committee to go into it.

After confirming that the complaint needed investigation, the government initiated disciplinary proceedings and placed him under suspension temporarily to ensure a free and fair inquiry.

”The government has not taken any final decision. He has been only placed under suspension. A final decision on the charges will be taken after the probe,” the release said, adding, suspension could not be construed as a punishment.

http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20100807/1560684.html

ACTION ON DALIT OFFICER SMACKS OF VENDETTA

umashankarias — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:02:40 +0000

ACTION ON DALIT OFFICER SMACKS OF VENDETTA

Chennai,
AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa accused the DMK government on Wednesday
of victimising IAS officer C Umashankar, and alleged that the Dalit officer had
been “targeted for expos ing or questioning the wrong-doings” of the family
members of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
It “smacks of vendetta,” she said in a statement here, referring to the
suspension of Umashankar, a 1990-batch IAS officer, on the “pretext” that he had
entered the Civil Services using a bogus community certificate.
Jayalalithaa wondered why the government suddenly claimed that Umashankar had
forged his community certificate when it was the UPSC that had appointed him
after verifying his credentials and certificates. She recalled that Umashankar
had taken action against Sumangali Cable Vision (of the DMK’s Sun TV Group) when
he was MD of Arasu Cable Corporation. Also, he had raised certain questions as
MD of the ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu).
In a meeting with the press on 5.8.10, G.Ramakrishnan,State Secretary of CP(IM)
has interalia, urged the Government of Tamilnadu to immediately rescind the
vindictive action taken on C.Umasankar,I.A.S.
T.K.Rengarajan,M.P and Central Committee Member of CPI)M) ,on 5.8.10 has also
urged the Govt.of Tamilnadu to revoke the suspension order served on the honest
official C.Umasankar who brought to light many malpractices committed in the
functioning of ELCOT and Arasu Cable TV Corporation

http://dalitmovementassociation.grouply.com/message/59

ELCOT’s success story of Suse linux migration

umashankarias — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:00:58 +0000

ELCOT’s success story of Suse linux migration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_g72GcaIdc

Electronic Corporation of TamilNadu, India is the Information Technology arm of Government of TamilNadu, India. ELCOT is a fully owned Government Company. ELCOT migrated all its operations to suse linux OS within a period of 12 months. This video shares the success story of ELCOT in the suse linux migration (June 2007).

JayaTV-Aug8- 2010-Umashankar- IAS-news

umashankarias — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:58:28 +0000

JayaTV-Aug8- 2010-Umashankar- IAS-news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAvPXIf8Cxo

Support for Umashankar irks state

umashankarias — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:56:43 +0000

Support for Umashankar irks state
August 11th, 2010
DC

Aug. 10: The growing support for suspended IAS officer C. Umashankar from several dalit outfits and political parties, accusing the DMK government of victimising an honest dalit officer for acting against influential people, is causing huge discomfort for the ruling party when elections are just round the corner. Dalits constitute over 20 per cent of the state electorate.
One after another, several dalit outfits and intelligentsia across Tamil Nadu have been holding protest rallies in support of Mr Umashankar and accusing the government of being vindictive because he had openly challenged some corrupt practices of influential people.
Senior political leaders, including CPI veteran R. Nallakannu, CPI (M) state secretary G. Ramakrishnan and veteran Gandhian Tamilaruvi Manian will share a pro-Umashankar platform in Chennai on Thursday.
Ridiculing the government’s justification for the suspension, former IAS officer P. Sivakami, a popular dalit activist, said, “Umashankar’s father is a dalit pallar and all his siblings are dalits. Where does the question of producing a false SC certificate arise? Did the government suspend the many other officers against whom similar charge of using fake SC certificate was levelled? Some of them are now in prominent posts.” VCK general secretary D. Ravikumar, MLA, demanded that the suspension be revoked and Mr Umashankar reinstated.
AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa has slammed the government on the Umashankar issue and demanded to know why the chief minister was silent on some of the crucial allegations made by the officer, such as the functioning of the joint-venture Elnet and the government cable TV corporation. Literary magazine Dalit Murasu has come out with an editorial accusing Karunanidhi of being ‘a bundle of contradictions’ in punishing a dalit officer because he claimed SC reservation even after conversion to Christianity, but at the same time demanding the Centre to open SC quotas to dalit Christians .
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/support-umashankar-irks-state-718

Jaya demands action against DMK legislator

umashankarias — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:54:35 +0000

Jaya demands action against DMK legislator

Chennai, Aug 8 AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa today demanded action against a DMK legislator for allegedly attacking Anna University (Tirunelveli) Vice-Chancellor S Kaliappan and Physical Education Director Devadas

In a statement here, she said the attack had taken place just before the convocation was to commence yesterday.

She claimed that DMK ‘had engineered the attack.’

Jayalalilthaa recalled that government and police officials were treated with dignity and respect during the previous AIADMK regime, headed by her

But such officials have become the target of attacks in the DMK regime, she alleged and added that Devdas was attacked when he went to the rescue fo Kaliappan.

She said dalits were increasingly unsafe under DMK rule, proof of which was the attack on Kaliappan and suspension of IAS official C Umashankar.

She said Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had not condemned the attack. Even Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin, who attended the convocation, had not done so.

Jayalalithaa said the AIADMK would launch agitation if the DMK regime failed to put an end to such attacks and urged the Chief Minister to take action against the MLA. -Agencies

http://news.chennaionline.com/newsitem.aspx?NEWSID=ffba6ef9-63c9-4fba-b8ce-bab96fb68224&CATEGORYNAME=CHN

Mr. C. Umashankar, IAS letter dated March 20th 2005 to Mr. Rajeev Chawla on BHOOMI and Banaglore One

umashankarias — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:24:16 +0000

Mr. C. Umashankar, IAS letter dated March 20th 2005 to Mr. Rajeev Chawla on BHOOMI and Banaglore One

20-3-05

Dear esteemed colleague Rajiv Chawla,

I am grateful to you for your response on Bangalore One, which I had preferred to call Bangalore one nonsense.

I have gone through your reply to Mr.Kumaraswamy. Your reply had not covered the basic issues raised by me. Your response had made the debate on Bangalore one a two way process. So far the e-debate was going on without the other side. Now it had reached a full circle. Thanks to you. India needs this type of debate on matters of public interest. India e-gov group had built this strength during the past 4 years. We need more such groups which are capable of bringing the governments into the e-debate fold.

Your name has been identified synonymous with Bhoomi. I have been praising the Bhoomi project as it is one of its kind in India. Andhra Pradesh which is supposed to be the leader of e-governance had not automated its land record administration. That adds a feather in your cap. Bill collection through e-seva is a child play as compared to Bhoomi. Bhoomi is an effort worth emulating by all other States. This does not mean that I agree with the entire technology behind Bhoomi. It is the effort and its success which deserve all the credits and also replication. Bhoomi needs to be technologically advanced. From the visual basic design to a web based open source design. Such an open source design should alone be replicated.

And Bhoomi has to be scaled up to cover the urban areas too.

It is a matter of fact that no such typical e-governance software can be replicated across the States in India because of the difference in the systems among the States. No two States have the same land record system. So, replication can be only in terms of technology and the methodology/strategy adopted. Open source technology along with the strategy adopted by Karnataka would be worth emulating.

After one successful process automation software you seem to have decided to go for the quick fix solution (B1), a solution that has the potential to undo the name you have earned so far. I have already explained in detail why Bangalore one is bad and why Karnataka should not go ahead with it. You can view my write up in http://www.sugame.com/umashankar

After going through your reply, I am still convinced that Bangalore One is a fraud on Karnataka people as it does not empower any of the stake holders starting from the government itself.

Before I analyse your reply, I have a few observations to make.

I tried to know more about Bangalore One project. There is no mention about Bangalore one in Karnataka State’s website. There is a brief mention about it in NISG’s website. Neither of them gives any details about the 15 types of so called e-governance services that are proposed through the Bangalore One project. Whatever I grasped about Bangalore One had been derived from your press interviews that are found in online magazines.

My opinion is that a mega project like this one has to be handled with more openness and the citizens’ views should form the subject matter of the Government’s decision making. Unless the citizen is given the full details, you cannot expect feedback from them. Without such a feedback you may end up developing something which is not the actual requirement of the citizens. In the succeeding paragraphs I am raising the citizens’ concerns, I mean the primary concerns. Let us see whether Bangalore One had addressed such primary concerns.

If the primary concerns are not addressed through Bangalore one Project, then for whose satisfaction the project is being proposed? This will be the question you may need to answer if it is found that B1 had been found to be empty No.1.

Another observation I would like to make is the elaborate way in which you had covered the tender process.

There was an empowered committee headed by the Additional Chief Secretary and then a tender committee headed by a Deputy Secretary.

The gap between these two chair persons is too obvious to miss.

In any case I am not going into the tender business at all. In all my postings I have not raised any question about your selection process. But I have questioned the very basis of the Bangalore one concept. The very concept on which Bangalore One is built is wrong. It is NOT pro people (empowerment), pro government, pro women, pro dalit and pro democratic.

After taking a policy decision to go for Bangalore one if the Deputy Secretary is entrusted with the task of scrutinizing the tenders, he/she will do it as he/she has no choice.

But look at the result!

For Andhra e-seva project, Andhra’s Bhongir OLTP project and for the current Bangalore One project, there is only one main vendor. That is Ram Informatics and CMS consortium. Don’t you smell a rat here? A vigilance and anti corruption official would immediately say that the entire tender procedure was a smoke screen. Indeed the lengthy effort you had taken appears to be a perfect smoke screen with everyone involved in the tender process knowing fully well that it would be only Ram Informatics/CMS consortium who would ultimately clinch the deal! Because everyone knew before hand that no other vendor could match RAM Informatics’ quote.

When the basis of the decision itself is wrong, one can expect all these wrongs to follow. If you had proposed process driven e-governance, this consortium would have never been there. Process automation is for the professional companies. Under process automation, there can never be a single vendor across the states. This consortium has been bagging successive orders because the task is just bill collection and not e-governance. Bill collection is uniform for all States. There is hardly any difference between the BSNL bills between the States! Bill collection job such as the way in which e-seva/Bangalore One had been contemplated provides huge income without literally any special effort or technical know how. There arises the scope for corruption. I am making a simple analysis about the income potential vis a vis the simple bill collection job in the succeeding paragraphs and how it offers scope for corruption in the name of e-governance!

True e-governance is not uniform across the States. Even for the same functionality the process differs between States. So a right royal rigging of the tender process is not possible. What happened in Bangalore One is a royal rigging. You have provided a bill collection functionality in which the consortium had prior experience. Before the Andhra e-seva experiment, one had not heard about this consortium. But it managed to find its way and thus gained experience in the bill collection. I still remember the Bhongir tender which came in 2001. A multi national company which took part in the bid was disqualified for strange reasons. Their commercial bid was not opened at all. But in that tender this unknown consortium had been selected. The multi national company representative came back from the tender meeting and told me that there was an effort to pre-configure a particular bidder!

One wrong can lead to another wrong. I can make a parallel with another State where I have first hand knowledge about such an episode. In that State, building contractors who were ineligible were allowed to take part in the tender and they were awarded the contracts. After executing the work taken up this way, the contractors grew to mammoth proportion quoting prior experience! One illegal award of contract can lead to another because of this ‘prior experience’ concept. The law is very weak in this regard. The weak foundation on which you have decided to commence ‘citizen services’ would enable the same consortium to bag the tenders again and again. A single vendor for the whole of Andhra Pradesh and Karanataka (as of now) to dispense with government services is dangerous. Single bidder in tender process is discouraged in government. Here is the case where you have finalised a single vendor for government services for the whole state adopting ‘transparent and open tender procedure’! A blatantly wrong thing is being committed through the legal way! Giving the whole State to a single vendor while ignoring the claims of women self help groups, socially marginalised groups, SC/ST people etc., is dangerous for the future of Karnataka. Already in AP, the consortium had expanded its operation to other urban areas too. The casualty is the rural areas.

This is where I want you to look at the whole process afresh, in the interest of Karnataka and in the interest of rest of India.

Your reply states that you have plans for replicating the same model across Karnataka! This is what I say ‘one wrong foot begets another wrong foot’. The private partner would happily extend it to the urban areas of Karnataka beyond the Bangalore city limits but not to the rural areas. But such an extension would be at the cost of other small IT partners at the district level in Karnataka and more so the women SHGs. NISG had already admitted through e-mail that it does not have any strategy for either process automation based e-governance or revenue model for rural areas! Replicating the bill collection model in rural areas in this fashion is not possible and even if it is attempted, it could bring about a bad name for the Government in power.

Let me deal with the functional and technical content of Bangalore one.

You have stated clearly that you have intended to go for process automation in the respective government offices. In the absence of information about the services intended to be offered through Bangalore One, I can only guided by the services that are offered through e-seva of AP. You have already claimed that e-seva of AP has been your guru. BSNL billing, electric bill collection, RTC booking etc., are not typical government services where the back end automation is not a subject matter of concern for the citizens or governments. Because these are e-commerce installations where back end automation is a pre requisite for their very survival. Then what are the typical government services for which you had planned for back office automation? Like me the whole group of e-gov enthusiasts wish to know these details from you.

The correct way to go for citizen services is to do the back end automation using online procedure and then open the window to the kiosks. You seem to believe in the other way around. It is like trying to say that you would think about laying foundation for a building after constructing the fourth floor! You have been able to visualize such a wrong route because the services proposed to offered through Bangalore One were not e-governance but only bill collection.

Just for academic interest sake I suggest that you may visit the esevaonline.com website. Do you find any grievance redressal mechanism there? Or do you find any online application there? Is there any provision for two way interaction between the Government and the citizens? No. e-seva is a wrong nomenclature. It is actually bill seva!

We in the IAS know the in and out of the administration when it comes to field level realities. For the outsiders even online bill collection initially looks great! But we know that a true e-governance requires the citizen to interact with the government and its various agencies in a seamless manner using the web as medium. Do you find the esevaonline providing such a window of interaction opportunity? No. not at all! It is a dumb site for collection of money. The sole exception is the RTO services that are offered in the Banjara hill centre. Here also the citizen does not have a choice of filing the application online!

Can a citizen file his/her application online for old age pension benefit? No.

Today getting old age pension facility is a tedious task. This maginalised section of citizens has to undergo the torture of the lower level government staff. Many times their applications are lost, not one time, but many times. Because the application has to be accompanied by a bribe. If the bribe amount is missing, the application also goes missing.

Similar is the case with Distress Relief Scheme and accident relief scheme. These schemes are intended to take care of the families below the poverty line when an earning member of the family dies. In this case, the local officials swindle more than 50% of the compensation amount payable to the families in distress!

This section of population cannot afford to pay the service charges. The PPP model would not work here. I would never suggest considering PPP model for these schemes. The government should not and cannot think in terms of doing business with its poor citizens. It is these poor sections that elect the government with a hope that their government would provide them something to enable them to get three square meals a day! In a country where 40% of the population is living below the poverty line, talking about PPP in all areas of government business is nothing but anti human being and anti democratic.

The scholarship amount to the SC/ST students usually reach during the fag end of the academic year. Through e-governance you can get the money disbursed by July-August itself.

Your contention is that rural people had no problem in paying service charges. You have quoted the success of Bhoomi project. Bhoomi project had become a success as your module has been catering to the land owners mainly. Majority of the land owners are not below the poverty line. They have no problem in paying the user charges. But we know the proportion of poor landless labourers far outnumbers the land owners’ figures. Bhoomi project can work only with land owners but the methodology would not work in Block development offices where the entire services are meant for the people below the poverty line (BPL). It will not work in the same Taluka office where the OAP / distress relief scheme / accident relief schemes are administered. It will not work in health sector either in district hospitals or PHCs.

If you are planning to replicate Bangalore one in rural areas, I suggest that you should wait. The Bangalore One itself has to be reviewed before it is taken up for implementation.

Now let me work out the economies of Bangalore one and how it is attractive to bill collectors (vendors) and how it has the potential to encourage corruption.

Bangalore One, like e-seva had decided to make payment to the vendor bill wise. For Bangalore one it is Rs.4 per bill. The very fact that the payment is connected to the number of bills shows that it is a bill collection mechanism only.

The volume of bills is a subject matter here. Bangalore city is larger than Hyderabad.

Each month, the 15 centres may generate a total of around 2 million bills. That means the revenue is going to be 80 lakhs per month. (Rs.9.6 crore per annum). This is to start with. And it may go up further. Assuming that for each centre there is going to be 10 desks, the total cost would be not more than Rs.30-35 lakhs per month for all the 15 centres. This leaves a huge margin for the contractor right from the very first month onwards.

Now let us see the technology involved in such bill collection system.

In the case of BSNL like organizations, they provide the back end data. In the case of property tax collection, the BMC would build the data using direct data entry option and provide the same for use by the Contractor. Now the role of the PPP partner is to use this database as back end and collect the sums, either physically or through online system. Building the billing system is almost like child play. Any technically qualified person would vouchsafe for this statement. Technically it involves adding one transaction table with a few more tables for user interface and audit trail to build the billing system.

I was told that you had specified Rs.20 lakhs as EMD for the tender for such a non complicated work. Is it true?

Actually, even small time operators can build such a system with ease.

There is absolutely no special technology involved in the whole process. One cannot say that online payment is a complicated process. The internet and payment gateways such as verisign have made the online payment systems like a cake walk. So, you do not require any great technology for implementing Bangalore One. The question I would raise here is why you have not contemplated the running of this project by women self help groups, with the Government handling the billing software maintenance using web as medium?

I have gone through your analysis that the people in AP have not been using the online payment gateway to the extent one wishes. But then why is that you are so much concerned with BSNL collection or for that matter RTC booking collection. Electricity bill collection is again not the responsibility of the government. The Electricity Board is capable of doing the collection by setting up bill collection centres through STD booths. These are not the areas which you and me should be involved. If you remove this unnecessary add on services which are made available through the e-seva counters, you would find that the typical property tax collection and similar services are too small a proportion to justify any involvement by the Government.

You seem to argue that the Government of Karnataka wanted to provide world class service to its Bangalore citizens first and then scale it up to other areas of Karnataka. Noble thought indeed. But I fail to appreciate as to why you have not taken up the troubled services such as building permits, land layout permits, web based online land registration system, web based RTO operations, scholarship for the SC/ST students, web based OAP system, web based commercial tax interactions and so on.

Even your own employees have to pay a bribe in the treasury office to get their TA bill or GPF loan encashed! This is a uniform phenomenon all over India.

If you want to really serve the citizens, then the first of the services you should choose are NOT the bill collection services.

So I do not trust that it is the drive to provide world class service to the people of Bangalore / Karnataka that had prompted the proponents to go for Bangalore one project without looking into back office automation using process automation methodology.

That means the proponents are advocating Bangalore One for any one of the following reasons:

1. That the Government of AP had done the e-seva project which had been acclaimed to be a great success. So, let us also implement such a project in Bangalore and create a niche for Karnataka in the filed of e-governance Or

2. let us create the necessary e-governance momentum using Bangalore One bill collection system as a jump start factor. Or

3. the worst, let us make some illegal money in the name of e-governance. This is possible as the contractors who bagged the contract get huge profit margin and they can afford to part with a percentage of their income as long as the project goes on!

Let me analyse the above three scenarios one by one.

The e-seva project of Hyderabad had not spread to the rural areas. But it had prevented the government from thinking about the rural areas at all. As on date, the rural Andhra Pradesh had not got any e-governance except in West Godawari district. The West Godawari district e-governance project headed by Sanjay Jaju does not have any connection with Hyderabad e-seva. Sanjay Jaju had done the West Godawari project from out of district funds. It was his individual initiative and not the initiative of the government.

There is no corporate involvement in West Godawari. The SHGs are the only service providers! As the Government of AP could not visualize the implementation of Hyderabad e-seva in rural areas, they are now thinking of replicating the West Godawari experiment in rural AP. Karnataka should learn from the mistakes and blunders committed by AP. The hype created by media about the Hyderabad e-seva should not be the guiding factor to commit hara-kiri.

Now that the media and the citizens are aware of the flaws of the Hyderabad e-seva experiment, the Karnataka Government would not get the same media attention beyond the initial period.

Similarly, the bill collection system does not have any component/ingredient to drive a true e-governance momentum as there is a clear cut divide between the government offices and the bill collection centres. In any case, no typical e-governance service is proposed through these bill collection centres. On the other hand the bill collection system supported by a private partner could become a strong dampener for any true e-governance initiative. Because, by default, this private partner only would be configuring the tender document for future e-governance projects. Their views would be positive towards PPP model only. They would expect the revenue model to work everywhere. The failure of Bhongir experiment in AP can be attributed to the revenue model proposed there apart from other factors. One of the reasons attributed to disqualifying reputed software companies from commercial bid of this tender process was that their revenue model design was not attractive. What sort of a revenue model one can suggest to the district education office or the Block Development Office/DRDA or SC/ST welfare office?

So, looking at revenue model where it is not supposed to be looked at has the real retarding effect. Bangalore One comes built in with this retarding factor. In short Bangalore one would not create the necessary momentum or climate to proceed to the process automation based true e-governance. But it has the potential to kill any such initiative. This could be disastrous for Karnataka.

The third factor is something you need to answer. I cannot talk for you.

Let me come back to the corruption angle. A few days ago I was in Bangalore to deliver a lecture on “Reinventing Government” in IIMB. One of the participants, an IPS officer in the DIG rank sharply criticized Bhoomi project. He had registered a small piece of land in Bangalore city. Instead of deputing someone to do the registration job, he had personally gone to the sub registrar’s office. His assistant had to pay at 6 different counters to move the papers. By evening the amount spent reached Rs.3000 at the rate of Rs.500 for each dealing assistant. By this time, somehow they found out that the client was an IPS officer. Promptly they returned the bribe sum to this IPS officer who was present in the Sub Registrar’s office. But now only the trouble had started. A senior officer of BDA had taken this document for effecting change of land registry (Patta/Katha Transfer). The famous Bhoomi project could not deliver this service till date. It could be due to first in first out system or it could be that you have not introduced Bhoomi in urban areas as the technical requirements are totally different between rural and urban land records or the Taluka officials have been demanding illegal money. But the BDA official who had taken up this task had reportedly exclaimed “Sir if you had paid that bribe this delay would not have occurred”. Till date the IPS officer had not got his patta. This IPS officer has been undergoing training under the one year PG Diploma programme of IIMB and you can cross check the facts. The point I wish to make is that payment of utility bills is not a matter of great concern for the citizen, especially when banks such as SBI had come forward and started offering the e-pay services at no extra cost. Majority of the Bangalore’s population has not only bank accounts but also credit cards. There is hardly any role for a corporate to handle the collection of utility bills. And there is hardly any role for the State Government in this process. This is far below the State government’s level. However, the State is entitled to come down only to support women SHGs to handle this operation as it would empower women, that too women from below the poverty line.

The State has a responsibility to ensure that its typical services like the one mentioned above reach the citizens without intermediary or corruption. You name any service under the State, the citizens would narrate how the system fleeces them day in and day out. No State can call it better off in this regard.

These are the services which have to be taken up first under e-governance. And there is only one route to such e-governance, that is process automation, fully involving the Government employees. Front ending can be done by multiple service providers including the very same offices, SHGs, STD booths and even the large kiosk operators. But no special patronage shall be required for any kiosk operator other than the SHGs. The State has a special role in promoting the SHGs but definitely not the private corporate.

The following issues raised by me through my e-mail posting dated 12-3-2005 titled “Bangalore one Project – A reverse gear e-governance” had not been answered by your reply to Mr.Kumaraswamy. Your reply with regard to back office automation and extending to rural areas were vague.

“The pluses and minuses of Bangalore one

1. it has no governance or e-governance content. It has no software for handling the back office operations of the government offices. It does not have even a single service which can be called e-governance. Payment of utility bills does not come under governance at all. This may come under the definition of (part of) e-commerce. It is a different matter that Governments have no business to involve themselves in e-commerce. It is an exclusive domain of the private corporate.

2. it has nothing for the business community, save for the consortium which had been identified for the implementation of the project.

3. it is not process automation based.

4. it does not have any plan for the Government offices. It has plans only for the window dressing (kiosks)

5. it does not have anything for the poor who constitute over 50% of Kannadigas.

6. it has nothing for the rural areas, which constitute 75-80% of Karnataka.

7. it has nothing for women or SC/STs. (The rural e-seva project which has been under implementation in West Godawari district of Andhra Pradesh has given primacy to women self help groups for the kiosk operations. Though the West Godawari project had not automated the back office operations, it had resulted in massive empowerment of the rural women. For this achievement, Sanjay Jaju and his team deserve all credits. West Godawari had gradually started building the back office automation as well, according to the latest reports. Why Karnataka chose to ignore this women empowerment issue?)

8. Bangalore one or any other similar project has the retarding effect of stalling true e-governance projects. This had already happened in AP. The e-seva project had resulted in stalling of all other efforts to bring in true e-governance. AP has nothing to quote as genuine e-governance effort except the registration department automation which was commenced before the commencement of e-seva. The private vendors would allow anything which has something for them. After tasting success in one project such as the e-seva, they look for only the ‘revenue models’ and not something which is beneficial to the citizens/common man. The revenue model means revenue to them. May be it is a shared revenue.

9. According to the e-mail admission from NISG, the NISG which manages the Bangalore one nonsense has no plans for rural areas. (http://www.sugame.com/umashankar)”

There is no clarity with regard to the 15 types of services Bangalore One intends to offer!

We, the Indian citizens who are interested in true e-governance would be happy if Karnataka aborts this ill started idea and resort to process automation based e-governance.

With warm regards. C.Umashankar IAS.,

e-governance expert and member India e-gov group.

umashankarc@yahoo.com

C.Umashankar IAS., (TamilNadu Cadre)
e-governance expert and Member (Special Invitee) – Working group for implementation of National e-governance action plan, Government of India, New Delhi.
Member, India e-gov group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/India-egov/

http://sugame.com/umashankar

Chennai:
Ph: 91-44-52054443

Jaya questions Umashankar’s suspension, says he is being victimised

umashankarias — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:21:27 +0000

Jaya questions Umashankar’s suspension, says he is being victimised

TNN, Aug 4, 2010, 11.05pm IST

CHENNAI: Rallying behind suspended IAS officer C Umashankar, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday alleged that the dalit officer was being victimised by the DMK government in Tamil Nadu for “exposing and questioning the atrocities” of chief minister M Karunanidhi’s family.

Reacting to the suspension of the 1990 batch IAS officer on the charge that he had entered the civil services using a bogus community certificate, she said it was the responsibility of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to vet the antecedents of every recruit and verify all their certificates. “When this is so, the Karunanidhi government suddenly claiming that Umashankar had entered the service using a forged community certificate gives room for speculation on the reasons behind this,” she said in a statement.

Jayalalithaa said Umashankar was appointed as managing director of Arasu Cable Corporation (ACC), which was launched in 2007 following a rift in Karunanidhi’s family. More than Rs 400 crore was invested in ACC for sophisticated electronic receivers and fibre-optic cable networking. However, once there was a reconciliation between Karunanidhi’s close family members and his grand-nephews, the Maran brothers, he was shunted out of ACC, she charged.

Earlier, in 2006, when Umashankar was MD of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), it floated a joint venture company with New Era Technologies Ltd called ELNET, she said and added that ELNET, in turn, launched a subsidiary company called ETL Infrastructure Ltd. “This company purchased 25 acres of land at Pallikaranai near Chennai and constructed an IT park of 17 lakh square feet. It also got IT special economic zone status from the Centre by projecting itself as a subsidiary of the state-owned ELCOT. But later, ETL became a wholly privately-owned company,” the AIADMK chief said. She alleged that the officer was shunted out from ELCOT after he raised questions about the disappearance of it subsidiary from records along with its Rs 700 crore assets.

Umashankar had fallen foul of the Jayalalithaa regime of 1991-96 too. He first came into prominence when he detected irregularities in construction of cremation sheds when he was an official in Madurai district. Later, a CBI investigation was ordered into the scam and the trial is still going on.

Seeking your support Reg UmaShankar.IAS – A honest officer being Harassed for exposing Political Scams..

umashankarias — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:55:37 +0000

Dear Friends,

This is an important mail reg GOVERNANCE – CORRUPTION – FAMILY POLITICS – MISUSE OF TAX MONEY. Makkal Sakthi Katchi spent nearly 50 days on this issue. Now seeking your support to take it further. SO PLEASE SPARE A FEW MINS AND READ THIS MAIL FULLY.. PLS… Your reading will make a difference..The issue is about the harassment by TN govt to a Honest IAS officer UmaShankar. ( Those who already know about the complete issue of Umashankar.IAS can directly goto the section ( “WHAT SUPPORT WE EXPECT FROM YOU?” )

Before you read the mail – here is a quick intro about him. He is a 1990 batch IAS – In 1996, at the age of 31 he has boldly exposed CREMATION SHED SCAM – When he was collector for Tiruvarur(1999-2001) he made it as the first e-district in India – In 2001-2006 he was put under a dummy post – In 2006, when he was ELCOT MD, he introduced E-TENDER system – online bidding – E-Administration like GPS tracking of lorry routes to ration shops…
Hence in year 2000, THE WEEK magazine chose him as the “Man of the Millenium in who can bring change in Governance”
NOW LET’S GET INTO THE SUBJECT..

1. On June17th,2010 a news published in all news papers in Tamilnadu. It is ” A honest IAS officer Umashankar.IAS went to court to get stay for the Vigilance Enquiry framed against him by Tamilnadu Govt for vindicative reasons..”. That news is attached.. Reg the vigilance enquiry the court gave a temporary stay.
2. Since We know Umashankar.IAS for last 10 yrs, we enquired more details about it. Met his lawyer and got the affidavit filed by him ( 150 pages.). You can find it in our website. Also you can send an email to info@makkalsakthi.net to get it.

3. After reading the full affidavit, we were shocked to see the bold steps taken by UmaShankar to Expose a 700 cr ETL Scam(happened with the blessings of a member of a powerful family in TN politics) and Recommendation of Criminal action against Maaran brothers(Sun TV) for collapsing Arasu Cable TV(ACTV) by means of cutting ACTV’s cable. He also recommended for Nationalisation of many thousand crore worth company which did the cable cutting(SCV). SCV is also owned by Maaran brothers. ( Infact Rs.300crore of tax money was invested in ACTV, just for the sake of solving a family problem/quarrel of TN’s high political power…!!!)
4. Now you can understand that, why Vigilance Enquiry is being initiated against UmaShankar. He never yielded to political powers and continued his whistle blower role in his capacity.
5. On June20th, we’ve organised for a protest(in Saidapet Chennai) to extend our solidarity to this honest IAS. Initially police gave permission for this. On June 19th, 8pm police called us and refused permission. The govt don’t want the news to be exposed.. But KALKI magazine wrote about it. Find it in attachment.
6. Again, Govt showed its ugly,corruptive face and tried to frame him under another means. The news on 23rd July is “Govt suspends IAS officer Umashankar” . On what ground ? ” “..Probe is going on to find genuineness of his caste certificate. Hence he is suspended!!” ie, He has produced fake certificate when he joined IAS..” . TN Govt finding this frivolous reason after 20 years to harass an honest officer..!!!

7. On July25th, we’ve organised a protest(in Saidapet,Chennai). Again police denied permission for this. We understood clearly that Govt don’t want its scams to be exposed.
8. Since the issue is a bigger one, we’ve called for a NGOs,Activists meeting on 26th July to discuss the further action to extend our solidarity and to mobilize public’s support for honesty. Anticorruption movement, nALLORE VATTAM,5th Pillar, PAADAM, AID-INDIA, MANITHAM, LANJAM KODATHOR IYAKKAM, Ennangalain Sangamam are some of the organisations participated in the meeting . Nearly 40 people met.
9. On Aug 12th, a hall meeting is arranged to “To extend solidarity to this Honest IAS..And Asking the Govt to order for CBI enquiry on scams exposed by him..”. We need to show that civil society is watching the Govt’s vindicative actions. The effort is taken by a group of organisations. This group will write to Chief secretary, governer, PM condemning the harassement to the honest IAS officer. As a next step, it may organise for protest or procession.. ( As of today the following are confirmed as speakers in the meeting: 1. Tamil Aruvi Manian 2. Devasagayam..IAS 3. Sivakami.IAS 4. Communist party of India(CPI). We are trying to call more celebrities like ArunaRoy, ArunthathiRoy, Kiranbedi,Tarun Tej Pal(Tehelka.com)..etc. If you know anybody who can add value to the meeting and who has already have reasonable media introduction, pls suggest us..)
10. We’ve attached all the relevant docs/images related to the abovesaid points. Pls spare some time to read it. We also have published more docs in our website http://www.makkalsakthi.net/

WHEN AN IAS ITSELF BEING HARASSED BY GOVT LIKE THIS WITH FALSE CHARGES! HOW COME AN ORDINARY CITIZEN WILL GET JUSTICE ? HIS BASIC HUMAN RIGHT ?

WE NEED TO MOBILIZE PUBLIC SUPPORT AND SHOW IT TO GOVT THAT PEOPLE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT GOVERNANCE, CORRUPTION, MISUSE OF POWERS….

WHAT SUPPORT WE EXPECT FROM YOU?
1. JOIN IN OUR EGROUP: Please join our group http://groups.google.co.in/group/save_democracy/ So that you will be continuously updated about this issue. Also, the more friends joins in the group, will give us more moral support for the team in field who are heading against corruptive govt.
2. VOLUNTEER: we want to propagate the message to FEW LAKH people. Particularly to youths. If you would like to volunteer for any online( blogging, website updation, Email campaigning…etc) or field activity in TN, pls let us know. We can form a team for it. ( Mail to info@makkalsakthi.net or call 9150040092 / 9443119564)
3. FINANCE : Always Finance is a struggle for a public interest issue. But, everytime it is proved that people will contribute for good cause. The total cost for this campaign(till aug 12th) may goupto Rs.40,000/-. This includes the hall meeting, online message propagation, photocopying of affidavits, posters, flyers, travel expenses…etc.. This time want to take the issue to as much as we can. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT POINT. THOSE WHO ARE NOT ABLE TO VOLUNTEER FOR FIELD/ONLINE WORK, PLS CONSIDER TO SPONSOR A LITTLE PART OF THIS COST. You can send your pledging message to info@makkalsakthi.net with your contact number. For any clarification you can call us @ 9150040092 / 9443119564 / 9150040095 / 9443562030 ( Our last one month Xerox bill itself Rs.3250/- Each set(Spiralled one) of UmashankarIAS affidavit filed in court which exposes high level corruption and misuse of political powers, costs nearly Rs.100. Already we put 25 sets of this and gave it to people who will take it further. We want to spread it as much as we can, but finance is a struggle for us.)
4. MEDIA: If you own a media( blog, magazine..etc) pls do post/write about it. If you have media contacts pls refer it to us.
This campaign is a part of our “SECOND FREEDOM STRUGGLE” TO REBUILD OUR COUNTRY. PLEASE BE PART OF IT…

—-
Senthil Arumugam,
State Steering Committee Member – Makkal Sakthi Katchi

IAS crusader refuses to give up fight against corrupt forces

umashankarias — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:39:25 +0000

IAS crusader refuses to give up fight against corrupt forces

Jaya Menon, TNN, Jul 31, 2010, 12.14am IST

CHENNAI: Growing up in Mettupatti, a hamlet in Tirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu, a young boy and his siblings were witness to the violent fights over religion between their parents. His father Chellakani Sadayandi, a dalit Hindu, could never accept his Christian wife’s devotion to her faith. But Suganthi Victoria remained steadfast. Ironically, years later, the boy, now 46 and a IAS officer, is fighting to clear the charge that he fudged his caste certificate to establish that he belonged to the Adi Dravida (SC) community.

It is rare in the history of bureaucracy in Tamil Nadu for a civil servant to be charged with forging his caste certificate. Rarer still, against an officer acknowledged as a crusader against corruption. While confronting the government of the day is nothing new for Umashankar, this is perhaps the most testing period in his 20-year-career. He has taken on the DMK leadership, accusing it of “vindictive action”, amidst speculation that the charge against him may be a fallout of a fight against sections in the bureaucracy.

Ironically, when the DMK came to power in May 2006, Umashankar was a favourite of the chief minister himself. After languishing for five years during the Jayalalithaa regime in an obscure post, he was handpicked for the job of ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu) chairman. He was in charge of one of the DMK’s showpiece welfare schemes: distribution of free colour TVs to the poor. ELCOT also played a role in setting up IT parks in tier II and tier III cities.

“The chief minister was very fond of me. At meetings he would make me stand beside him, and keep addressing me as Uma. He made it known to everyone that he liked me. But, I don’t know what has happened. He has completely gone against me,” said Umashankar, talking to TOI at his Thiruvanmayur residence, where visitors including senior officials continue to pour in.

If he is concerned about the crisis in his career, he is certainly not showing it. Frequent transfers and punishment postings have dogged him through his career. Umashankar says he was shunted out of ELCOT two years ago when he tried to dig up irregularities in ELNET, a sister concern, and later dropped from his post as head of Arasu Cable Corporation, set up at the peak of the feud between Karunanidhi’s family and the Maran brothers, to break the near-monopoly of Sumangali Cable Vision, the multi-system operator.

Now, facing a challenge to his continuance in the service, his energetic, garrulous demeanour reveals no signs of uncertainty. Winner of a national award for e-governance, he has now filed a complaint against the state to the National Commission for SC/ST for suspending him from service. “My vision, focus has not dimmed, despite all obstacles, the fire to fight corruption is still burning,” he says.

Born and raised in a small town, Umashankar completed his education in Tirunelveli before landing a job in the banking sector. The sixth son of a postmaster, he soon began to tire of his work in a remote tribal area of Madhya Pradesh. The eagerness to seek an IAS career was born out of this frustration. In his first two years in Vellore, Umashankar cracked down on large-scale black marketing of cinema tickets. Later, when he paraded some men for the same offence in Tiruvarur in 1999, the CM’s home district, his action evoked a volley of protests from theatre owners and DMK sympathizers who plastered posters against him on street walls and pulled down shutters of cinema houses for six days. An unrelenting Umashankar, then a district collector, refused to back down.

Tiruvarur became the first district in the country to adopt e-governance and the officer received an award in 2003 during the NDA regime for a paper on security solutions in e-governance. While a section of the bureaucracy consider Umashankar to be an intelligent officer and among the most IT-savvy, there are some who think he has “unnecessarily” pitted himself against the powers that be and “wasted” a good portion of his career.

It’s a career marked by frequent conflicts with authority. His first major confrontation with the powers that be was in 1995 when as additional collector of Madurai, he unearthed a scam in the construction of cremation sheds in graveyards under the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana scheme. This was among a slew of corruption cases that shook the then Jayalalithaa regime (1991 to 1996).

While it brought him into the spotlight and earned him the respect of the public, it took a toll on his domestic life. “Initially, I did not mind the frequent transfers as our children were young. But when I first heard about his suspension order, I panicked thinking of the financial crisis we will be facing,” says Surya, Umashankar’s wife, the daughter of an IAS officer, who served in Andhra Pradesh. “But I stand by whatever he does. My father was an extremely honest, upright man. Umashankar is very much like him,” she says.

Umashankar denies allegations about the genuineness of his caste certificate, saying his father remained a Hindu and that he converted to Christianity only two years ago. He is confident he would be cleared of the charges. “I will not leave the IAS. Though there are setbacks, they are only temporary. When I bounce back, nobody will be able to stop me from making an impact in Tamil Nadu.”

Times of India has published an article on Mr. C. Umashankar

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/IAS-crusader-refuses-to-give-up-fight-against-corruptforces/articleshow/6238906.cms