RAWALPINDI ( NADEEM REPORT )
Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, (CPDI) has successfully launched the website of District Government Jhelum. The launching ceremony was organized at office of District Coordination Officer Jhelum here on Friday. CPDI facilitated the website development process for district government Jhelum. All senior officers of District Jhelum including large number of people from media and civil society participated in the launching ceremony.
District Coordination Officer Mirza Mehmood-ul-Hassan appreciated the effort of CPDI to introduce the e-governance in Jhelum District. He urged all senior officials to designate a focal person in each department to regularly update the website of relevant department. DCO said that his vision is to facilitate all the 1.1 million citizens living in his district. He said that the website will provide updated information to citizens by getting information through a single click at their home. He further said that the training of District officials on website development and computer literacy will also be organized to ensure proper uploading of verified data on website of the district. He also encourages the citizens to visit the website www.jhelum.gop.pk to get updates about the performance of the district.
Addressing to the launching ceremony Syed Kausar Abbas, Program Manager of Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, CPDI said that CPDI has the program to develop the websites of all 36 district of Punjab. He said that CPDI is paying its one year cost for domain and hosting of website and as well as to capacitate the officials of the district through training workshops about website development and updating. Kausar Abbas said that Jhelum is the first district where CPDI has launched website among 36 districts. Three more districts will be launched by the end of January 2014. He said that the purpose of facilitating the district governments for website development is to ensure transparency in the public institutions. He said that the Government should regularly update the data on websites to increase public participation and facilitate the citizens through web-based information.
Kausar Abbas quoted that the website of Rawalpindi District is not working since 350 days. He urged the DCO Rawalpindi to immediately launch its website. He also said that it is imperative for government to facilitate the citizens through website. Citizens can also file complaints and suggestions through website. A cake cutting ceremony was also held by DCO and CPDI at the launching ceremony.