Poor record-keeping hits digitisation of civic records
Deadline extended by six months for project completion
Digitisation of records in the Chennai Corporation has been delayed because of the poor record keeping system of various departments.
Following a delay in completion of the digitisation project by a private agency, the Chennai Corporation Special Officer’s Council has extended the deadline for completion of the project by six months.
Pointing to the “damages caused to records and the challenges in scanning of such pages,” the private agency had requested the Chennai Corporation to extend the deadline.
60 lakh records
The agency has to scan 60 lakh records of the Chennai Corporation. The records pertain to various aspects including birth and death records, land records, civic utilities, assets and resolutions passed by the Council.
Accepting the request of the private agency, the civic body has permitted the agency to continue the work. Even as the work order was issued by the Chennai Corporation on May 11, 2015, the work was delayed for many months.
In a letter dated May 23, 2017 to the Chennai Corporation, the private agency had claimed that it had completed 75% of the work. As many as 7.7 lakh pages had been scanned, the letter said.
Corporation officials said the cooperation from various departments was not adequate.
“Some of the officials themselves may not want some key records to be digitised. Many land records are missing. Some of the land records from erstwhile local bodies have not been handed over to the Chennai Corporation after the merger. A few officials are aware of this. But they are reluctant to take action. Some of the corporation lands have already been grabbed and encroached upon,” said an official.
Many pages damaged
Work on scanning pages of the Law Department and the Education Department is under way now. But many pages have already been damaged. A few months ago, invaluable documents relating to data on birth and death were damaged as labourers hurriedly shifted the records, sources said.
The existing records have been shifted several times to facilitate the renovation of Ripon Buildings.
While a portion of records are housed in zonal offices of the civic body, a chunk of the records have been preserved at the iconic headquarters.
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