Urban News

The Hindu 17.09.2009

e-mail for all State government employees

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan inaugurated a project for providing e-mail facility to all government employees in the State as part of efforts to improve bureaucratic efficiency and speed up service delivery.

Nearly 4,000 employees, including top police officers and all those working in the government secretariat, received official e-mail addresses with the launch of the project. All government employees (numbering nearly 4.75 lakh) will be given the facility in a phased manner, the Chief Minister said.

“The Government of Kerala Web-mail Edition,’ as the facility is called, is a Free and Open Source Software platform developed by the Open Source Technology Team at the Centre for the Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), a State government institution. Users can organise messages, both sent and received by them, on two web-mail interfaces and can manage and share calendars, contacts, tasks and notes, according to a note circulated at the function.

Presiding over the function, Chief Secretary Neela Gangadharan said this was the first step to introducing electronic filing system in the government. The Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) had already shifted to totally electronic filing system. She said the public perception about red tape being an unavoidable part of the functioning of the government would change once the system was fully deployed. She said it would facilitate accurate monitoring of the plan implementation also.

KSITM Director Rathan U. Kelkar welcomed the gathering. C-DIT Director Sheela Thomas, IT Secretary Ajay Kumar, Inspector-General of Police A. Hemachandran and C-DIT Registrar K.T. Balabhaskaran spoke.

The Indian Express 14.09.2009

AMC offers upto 100% interest rebate to tax defaulters

Alarmed by the sluggish tax recovery in the first half of the current financial year, the municipal authorities have once again offered interest rebate to tax defaulters who are yet to pay dues under the old formula. Under the pre-2000 old formula, they owe the civic body a hefty Rs 600 crore.

The AMC has come out with interest rebate of 100 per cent on slums and chawls, and 50 per cent from other residential properties.

By way of concession, it has offered to charge penal interest on dues at 8 per cent against the 18 per cent charged on default. The scheme will be in force from September 15 to November 13 to recover dues to the tune of Rs 250 crore, excluding those from closed textile mills.

It is for the first time in its history that the civic body has been compelled to offer interest rebate to defaulters in just six months. The move will enable it to show a respectful collection figure by the end of the third quarter.

The recovery due may be Rs 600 crore under the old formula, but the AMC cannot hope to recover beyond Rs 250 crore because a large chunk is due from closed textile mills, which have entwined with the AMC in legal tangle.

Therefore, they have been excluded from the scheme, say civic officials. Standing committee chairman Asit Vora said there was nothing unusual in offering rebates frequently.

“What to do when people do not pay taxes at all?” he lamented. He said there was nothing wrong in offering interest rebates if the recovery got a boost this way. The standing committee has already passed the proposal in its previous meeting.