THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has cautioned a section of officials who derailed the paperless office project by resorting to physically processing files even after shifting to the paperless office platform. Even as many government departments have implemented paperless office, some officials are still taking printouts of files and writing remarks. This has led to a situation where portions a single file are in digital and physical formats.
Similarly, instances of uploading dummy documents just to generate a file number from e-office and processing the file in physical format was also noticed. This has been causing confusion, government sources said. In view of such practices, chief secretary S.M. Vijayanand recently issued a directive to all officials to strictly do away with the practice of creating parallel physical format of files being processed through e-Office. He also warned against uploading documents to generate file numbers and processing the file physically.
“Unless a file is processed digitally right from its creation, it will be difficult to track its status or recall the file for future reference. This derails the spirit of shifting to paperless office,” a senior official said. In order to ensure proper implementation of paperless project, the chief secretary also directed all departments to appoint nodal officers and review implementation of e-office on a fortnightly basis. All department heads were also directed to report the progress to the chief secretary every month.
Almost all 40 departments in Secretariat are migrating to paperless platform. General administration, finance and law have fully shifted to paperless format. Home and revenue departments, however, raised reservations on fully shifting to paperless format citing complexities and voluminous nature of files. All departments are directed to migrate physical files to e-migrate by December 31.
