400 police stations in Sindh to be computerised; tracking devices to be installed in 300 police mobiles
By Imtiaz Ali
Karachi: The Sindh government is considering establishing a regulatory authority to deal with cyber crimes and other related issues, Information Technology (IT) Department Director General (DG) Mohammed Yusuf told Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on IT on Tuesday.
The IT DG, responding to Standing Committee Chairman Mohammed Adil Khan, said that his department would also look into the growing trend of installing mobile towers on residential apartments and densely populated areas.
Khan observed that mobile towers were being installed without following the prescribe rules, and said that GSM technology was injurious to health. He regretted that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has still not given sufficient attention to “technical environment” by merely defining pollution as the smoke emanating from industries.
An IT Department official said that they had recommended to the federal government that “some powers” should be given to the IT Department to regulate mobile towers.
Yusuf also told the committee that they “intend” to computerize over 400 police stations in Sindh, including 105 in Karachi. When the chairman observed that the people were facing problems as the police did not maintain sufficient records, particularly of FIRs, the DG said that they were also planning to develop software for FIR registration.
He said that under the e-policing scheme, they have made “15” Madadgar of the police department fully computerized.Besides, he said, tracking devices would be installed in 300 police mobiles to identity their location, he added. He said that the project of computerizing driving licences has also been completed, which would hopefully be launched within 10 to 15 days at the Driving Licence Branch in Clifton and Nazimabad. He said that they have set up a centre for traffic management and have installed around 200 cameras at 40 spots in the city.
The IT DG said that around 200 acres of land has been reserved for developing IT City on Super Highway where foreign direct investment would be invited to generate revenue. Besides, he added, they have planned to collect data of 4,50,000 employees of Sindh government, which would cost Rs 17 million. According to him, an office has also been established at Services and General Administration Department for this purpose.
To a question by MPA Zareen Majeed, the IT DG said that so far only five departments of Sindh government – Health, Finance, Education, Planning and Development, and Services and General Administration – have been utilizing e-government project. He said that they have sent a letter to all departments for their computerization but regrettably they have not received positive response so far.
To a question by Naheed Begum MPA about e-government for Sukkur where the scheme for computerizing domicile and PRC (permanent residential certificate) has become “non-functional”, the IT DG said that it was the responsibility of the DCO and EDOs concerned to make it functional.
Source: The News
Date:5/19/2010
