Our Correspondent
Dimapur, July 6
Word about this wonderful facility called ‘computer’ and then ‘internet’ began circulating around in Nagaland circa the early 2000s. The first proper cyber cafes in Nagaland began gaining popularity among a small group of Naga youths in Kohima and Dimapur only then.
Almost two decades late but not in a hurry either, government machineries in Nagaland are slowly finding fancy in the wondrous benefits of the digital revolution.
As a part of the Digital India Week, the department of Rural Development and the department of Information Technology & Communication launched a mobile application called Mobile Seva, a website of the Rural Development RD website, and a local government directory on July 6.
The new technological facilities were inaugurated by the Chief Secretary of Nagaland, Pankaj Kumar, in the Secretariat Conference Hall in the Kohima town.
Speaking during the occasion Chief Secretary Kumar expressed happiness to be a part of the Digital India Week particularly in the state’s Rural Development department where launching of Mobile Seva, Rural Development’s website and the directory.Stating that Digital Revolution was going around the country ‘in a wonderful way where accessibility of technology is reaching out to each and every citizen round the corner’, the chief secretary said technology can make access to information ‘wonderful’. Technology intends to connect villages and the rural areas ‘leaving no corner of the world untouched,’ the chief administrator of the state said. The whole revolution process makes people’s life easier and better, he said.
The chief secretary also spoke about the mobile revolution saying that it was equally important more so for the rural people who have warmed up to mobile technology to make it popular. He said that mobile technology makes people accessible to government functionaries and various program and schemes.
According to Kumar, internet banking and online facilities for students’ scholarship services are provided to all as a part of the gifts of technology. The chief secretary urged the government departments to keep pace with others ‘for the success of digital revolution where it intends to make life easier by saving time and cost’.
In his short speech, Secretary for Rural Development Kelie Zeliang said that the world today was “at the cutting age of technology” and “our state is also trying to catch up with others in the field of technology”. He said that the launch of the 3 programs Mobile Seva under the department of IT & C and two websites under Rural Development in a day was a “remarkable achievement of the two departments”.
According to Zeliang, Mobile Seva was launched in India in the year 2011 by the department of Electronics & Information Technology of the Government of India. The objective of the program is to deliver services through mobile applications without having to ‘invest heavily’. It is to provide quick, easy and cheaper delivery of services, he said.
Secretary Zeliang also said that with the launch of the Rural Development department’s website, users can now visit and find various features, activities, achievements, performance, and other details of the department. The department can also have global exposure by having a website, he added. He examined the contents of the website during the event.
Speaking about the local government directory, Zeliang said that website users can find details about villages or their locations, under which district and block a particular village belongs and even details about maps, mapped villages, mapped town councils and municipalities. All the information related to villages will be available on the website for citizens and users.
Commissioner & Secretary for Information Technology, KD Vizo, thanked the department of Rural Development for coming forward to partner with the department of Information Technology for the Digital India Program. He said that the two departments ‘definitely have a common interest’ i.e., promoting the welfare of the rural populations. He hoped that the partnership would continue to grow in the near future for the benefit the people of Nagaland.
Besides the dignitaries, state government officials, representatives of various villages and local government representatives attended the event.
