New IT policy latest bone of political
contention
Saturday October 13, 2012 07:26:03 PM,
Sanu George,
IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's ruling Congress and opposition Left are warring again,
this time over the new IT policy. While Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI-M) veteran V.S. Achuthanandan says it favours
big players, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy believes that the CPI-M
opposes anything and everything proposed by the Congress.
The new policy has not yet been officially released, but former
chief minister Achuthanandan has a copy and says it would be
detrimental to the interests of the state. Achuthanandan has
warned the Chandy-led government that it must be prepared for a
long-drawn-out protest if it does not rewrite the policy.
"This new IT policy is going to benefit only the big players. It
will be a goldmine for real estate players as the earlier concept
of an IT park is making its way for an IT township," Achuthanandan
told reporters.
The draft policy, released a few months ago, had said the
state-run e-governance programme would be using Free Software.
"But in the final IT policy, there is no mention of it. Instead,
it says it would be run using Microsoft and SAP, which will not
augur well for the state," said Achuthanandan.
"And when it comes to the IT township, land near water bodies is
going to be sold out. During our time (2006-11), we had clear-cut
guidelines that land given for setting up projects was meant only
for that. But the new policy says in the IT townships, there would
be flats, villas, hotels, theatres and even boat clubs," he added.
Chandy retorted that it had become a habit for the CPI-M to oppose
anything and everything first and years later realise its folly.
"In the early 1990s, when I was finance minister, they ransacked a
government office because that office took up computerisation
first. Today the situation is such that all of them now carry
laptops. The same was the case when they opposed tractors in the
1970s and also when it came to beginning self-financing
professional colleges, they did the same," said Chandy.
He added that there was nothing secret about the new policy that
would be unveiled at the appropriate time.
Achuthanandan had stalled the mega Kochi Smart City IT project for
close to five years when he was chief minister. The project was
delayed with differences of opinion surfacing between the state
government and Dubai Smart City, which is to implement the
project.
"If that project had been cleared in 2006, by now at least 25,000
new jobs would have been created. Even though - after this
government assumed office in May last year - the global economic
scenario has changed drastically, one has to wait and see how this
project will shape up now," said a top IT official on condition of
anonymity.
Achuthanandan's threat of playing spoilsport against the new IT
policy comes at a time the state's total IT software exports is
around Rs.3,000 crore, far lower than the performance of the
neighbouring states. This, despite the state unveiling the first
full-fledged IT park of the country at the Technopark campus here
in the mid-1990s as well as the Infopark campus at Kochi.
The IT industry in the state employs around 45,000 professionals.
(Sanu George can be contacted at sanu.g@ians.in)
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