While interacting with government employees at Civil Secretariat, the day before Statehood Day, Chief Minister Pema Khandu has given an inspiring call to make all-round efforts to make Arunachal Pradesh better. And his simultaneous launching of the execution of satellite based monitoring and geo-tagging portal for all state projects comes as an able supplement to the government’s vision of fighting corruption and opacity- largely perceived as fait accompli,throughout the length and breadth of the country.

Topographically, we have a hilly turf, inaccessible areas where mule tracks or porter tracks are the life-lines. Men and material including life-saving drugs and rations are transported through head load and by foot march. With such a cheerless situation, getting ground assessment of infrastructure developments is arduous, time and cost consuming. Also, what has been adding to the woes is corruption, generated as by-products due to absence of a more stricter watchdog. But now technology has enabled us to face this challenge in a more effective way.

Retrospectively speaking, the idea of monitoring projects with a satellite based monitoring system is to uphold the theme, ‘Arunachal Pradesh – No Longer Remote with satellite based remote sensing technology.’ The State Remote Sensing Application Centre (SRSAC) was established in the year 1996 and now functioning as an independent organisation under the Department of Science and Technology of the state is the nodal centre for remote sensing application programmes.

Through its single window approach embracing latest state-of-the-art technology since inception, it has provided path- breaking solutions to a host of problems which has plagued the state for long. This approach has provided the much needed interface between the state government and citizens to view any geo-tagged photos providing project status information, thus bringing transparency and accountability amongst multiple stakeholders. Tailor-made for Arunachal, the dashboard generates an alert SMS/Email instantly to concerned agencies for immediate necessary actions, keeping no room for slowness.

Various reports, both inter- governmental as well as media reports in the recent past have corroborated the fact of new methods of corruption that are emerging fast, cross-country. Among them, one that has been successfully detected by geo-satellite monitoring found that a substantial percentage of village roads built in the country were shorter than the sanctioned length- a clear loot of public money.

Red tape, nepotism, and corruption continue to be major impediments to India’s progress and we cannot vouchsafe that our culture will change overnight.

That we have access to information and emerging technologies, the key tools that lead to openness and a level playing field for both governments and society at large ,we may say that we are now in a better setting to push forward the anti-corruption agenda.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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