Chandigarh: The Haryana government’s digitisation initiatives have come under sharp attack from opposition parties at a time when farmers in 12 out of the state’s 22 districts are battling floods and the government has asked affected farmers to apply for relief on its portal.
Former chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has visited several districts of Haryana affected by the recent floods, told media persons at Rohtak Thursday that all “anti-people” portals launched by the Manohar Lal Khattar government will be be shut down once the Congress votes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) government out of power in the next elections.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kumari Selja also hit out at the state government during her visit to flood-affected Sirsa the same day and said the government was “fooling farmers” in the name of portals.
Speaking to media persons Monday, Haryana CM Khattar had said that, as demanded by farmers who lost their crops due to floods, an online portal ‘e-kshatipurti’ had been launched by the state government so that the affected farmers can report their losses. He said once the farmers report their losses on e-kshatipurti, the claims would be verified by the district-level officials within a week so that the process of disbursement of compensation could start immediately.
However, speaking to ThePrint Friday, Hooda said: “We are not against digitisation in governance. But this is a time when lakhs of acres of land in more than half of Haryana have been submerged under floodwaters. People’s houses have collapsed, rendering them roofless. Shopkeepers have lost their goods due to damage caused by floods. They have had no business for the past several days. It is the duty of the government to reach out to them and compensate them for their losses. But the government wants them to apply on the portal.”
Selja told ThePrint that several farmers have approached her with complaints that the government has fixed 31 July as the deadline to sign up for compensation but the e-kshatipurti portal does not work most of the time.
“Another problem being faced by the farmers is that before reporting their loss on the portal, they have to obtain signatures of the patwari (revenue officials) or some other revenue official. If the farmers still have to go to the revenue officials, what use is the portal?” Selja asked.
She added that there is also an acute shortage of patwaris in Haryana, which has compounded the farmers’ problems with the deadline coming closer.
The government’s ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ portal, where farmers can report crop losses, also requires the sign off from a revenue official.
Hooda said that if the Congress government comes to power in Haryana after the 2024 assembly polls, “all portals created to harass the public” will be shut down.
“Digitisation started during the Congress regime when I was the chief minister. We started the process of digitisation of Panchayats. However, the purpose of digitisation was to make people’s lives easier and not to cause more inconvenience as this government is doing,” said Hooda to the media Thursday.
“If the government has to procure crops, then farmers are trapped in the web of Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’. The ‘Property ID’ started by the government has become a big source of corruption. The government is using the family identity card, or the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP), as a tool to stop the pension of elderly persons. And now, the government has launched e-kshatipurti portal to run away from the responsibility of giving compensation to the flood victims,” said Hooda, who has often called the Khattar government “Portal Ki Sarkar”.
‘Portals have eliminated nepotism’
Khattar had Wednesday replied to this “Portal Ki Sarkar” jibe saying that he accepted this taunt with pride. He said the portals launched by his government have provided people of Haryana an opportunity to access benefits of various government schemes sitting at home.
Meanwhile, Kumari Selja, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Surjewala, and senior Congress leader Kiran Choudhry Friday addressed a joint press conference, during which they criticised the Khattar government for another one of its digital initiatives — the property IDs.
“The lives of more than one crore people living in 88 cities of Haryana have been adversely affected by the Property IDs because of discrepancies in the IDs. People are being forced to pay bribes to get these errors corrected,” said Surjewala.
The Haryana CM’s media advisor, Amit Arya, however, claimed that ever since Khattar took over as CM in 2014, he has worked to bring in a system wherein people get benefits from government schemes in a “transparent manner”.
He added that though initially people faced difficulty in understanding the concept of portals, they have now become comfortable with the system and are availing benefits of such schemes.
“Haryana has over 100 portals today where people get the benefit of various schemes of the government sitting at home. This has eliminated the nepotism that was prevalent during previous regimes,” said Arya speaking to ThePrint Friday.
He gave the example of Antyodaya Saral portal, a faceless, paperless, and cashless service of the Haryana government, through which citizens can get more than 600 services, completely digitally.
“For works like issuance or renewal of arms licences, caste certificates, financial assistance from CM’s Relief Fund, character verification from police, the online appointment for registration of sale deeds, and many more services, people don’t have to take rounds of government offices. They just have to apply on the portal,” he said.
Arya added that more than 100 apps and portals pertaining to agriculture, industry, trade, commerce, social welfare, development, and many other fields, have been introduced by the Khattar government. Any person can get information about the government’s 684 schemes offered by 54 departments at a click.
According to Arya, the Meri Fasal, Mera Byora portal has proven to be a boon for farmers, as they don’t have to go to government offices for their subsidies and compensation anymore.
Similarly, Covid apps launched during the pandemic, he said, helped people get information about the spread of the disease, get treatment at home, and for online education of students.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)