Various ministries and departments of the government take on new projects to prove their achievements. Whether these are useful or not, is not verified. As a result, the government has to waste millions of taka. Earlier, this were being wasted in infrastructure construction, now various IT dependent projects have been added to this.
According to the Prothom Alo, the ICT ministry launched a website titled ‘Janatar Sarkar’ (government of people) at a cost of Tk 30 million to create direct communication between the government and the people but it is almost of no use. While opening the app on 15 September last year, state minister of ICT Junaid Ahmed said this app will create a bridge between people and the government of the country. But even after one year it is seen that the website is of almost no use.
The goal of the project was to know the opinion and thoughts of the citizens regarding the development projects of the government so that the government may take steps accordingly.
In theory, this may be true. But where bureaucracy plays a key role in government policy-making, such initiatives are unlikely to be fruitful. According to the information of the website, since its launch, the number of registered users is only 1,208 people. The last question of the survey was asked on 29 September last year. What is the reason for creating new websites and leaving them idle?
The reason the ICT state minister gave for not using the apps is not also acceptable. He said the responsibility of maintaining the apps belongs to the concerned authorities. Only the authorities may say what is the state of those. But what are the authorities who sit above these authorities doing?
Earlier the ICT department spent Tk 1800 millionto create 600 apps from 2013 to 2015. Among them 500 are missing and 100 are in a sad state , according to a 2020 Prothom Alo report. If those apps are not useful, why were they introduced at all?
There are very few examples of government development projects undertaken by taking opinions from the Bangladesh people. Even the representatives of the people are merely heard. Of course, most of our public representatives even bother much about it. They feel obliged by getting luxury cars, expensive flats and plots without giving excuses.
It is important to investigate fairly and impartially why the website titled Janatar Sarkar remained unused. Mysteriously, despite trying for almost a month, Prothom Alo could not contact the director of this project, Mohammad Saiful Alam Khan. It is unfortunate not to get a statement on the matter even by calling him on the phone, sending SMS and visiting his office. The people involved with this project including the director must be held accountable. What is the rationale for opening websites where the authorities have no initiative to engage the public?