The most advanced Online Transaction Project (OLTP), which wowed Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, has been abandoned much to the chagrin of villagers of this tiny village in Bhongir mandal in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh.
Taking a big leap towards e-governance, the then Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched the project in the presence of Mr. Gates on November 14, 2002, at Shilparamam, Hyderabad.
On seeing that a couple - Yadaiah and Kalyani - were handed over the birth certificate for their newborn baby at a multi-purpose kiosk in Bollepally, Mr. Gates appreciated the pilot project.
Inspra Solutions, in collaboration with the United Technologies Limited (UTL), took up the project at a cost of Rs.1 crore to provide 61 services of 11 departments for villagers in no time.
Two unemployed youths were appointed as kiosk operators . "By September 12, 2003, the kiosk stopped functioning because of non-payment of power and telephone bills,'' a village secretary, Sandela Kistappa said. The kiosk operators, who were unpaid for more than a year, searched another employment for their livelihood. As officials shifted the computer to Bhongir, now the empty kiosk is full of cobwebs and the gram panchayat staff had been using it as dustbin.
"The OLTP is a wonderful project and it must be revived,'' demand youngsters from the village.
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