Khandu advocates for transparency, accountability

Our correspondent

Itagar, April 12: The State government is taking several steps to promote the applications of IT in various departments, Aruchal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has said.

Khandu said this while attending the iugural session of a training on ‘E-governce Leadership’ for senior political and government executives, organized by the Indian Institute of Magement, Ahmedabad at San Francisco in USA on Wednesday, an official report stated on Thursday.

Khandu said the Aruchal Pradesh Government is working towards using IT to improve transparency and accountability. He urged the Parliamentary Secretaries and MLAs, attending the ongoing training, to initiate some innovative projects in their respective departments and constituencies.

Participating in the training session, Consul General of India in San Francisco V Ashok appreciated the government for initiating such training programme on IT in San Francisco, which is known for development in IT. He also suggested ways by which agricultural and horticultural produce of Aruchal can be promoted and exported outside the country.

He further expressed that there is huge potential for the growth of tourism in Aruchal Pradesh.

Chief Secretary Satya Gopal, while detailing the status of connectivity including digital connectivity in Aruchal, said the government is committed to work on resolving various connectivity issues. He also emphasized the importance and commitment of government towards transparency.

Later, the trainees had close interactions with the researchers and academicians on various topics in the University of California, Berkeley.

Among others, Dr Daniel Wilson gave presentation on behavioural sensing technology and environmental engineering, Prof Ashok Gadgil on technology related to safe drinking water, Prof Aprajit Mahajan on the use of machine learning to improve collection of taxes and minimizing evasions of taxes and Noah Klugman gave a presentation on energy access and ebling technologies. The participants also interacted with the representatives of Planet Lab on the development of agriculture and horticulture through the use of satellite technologies.

The training, which started on April 5, is being organized by IT Department in collaboration with IIM, Ahmedabad and attended by nine Parliamentary Secretaries and three MLAs, led by Khandu. The main purpose of the training is to highlight the role of political executive in the implementation of IT initiatives and increase efficiency of the government for better service delivery to citizen, the report.