CHITRAL: Video conferencing is inevitable to prevent the frequent visits of officers and officials of different departments to Peshawar to ensure good governance, says an official on condition of anonymity.
Talking to Dawn on Sunday, the official said the non-local officers frequently travelled to Peshawar to attend an official meeting, but prolonged their stay there at the cost public money incurred on payment of travel allowance.
The official claimed that the unnecessary travel to Peshawar could be reduced by 80 per cent if the mode of video conferencing was put in place. ‘’In this case head of a department will have to go to Peshawar only when it is unavoidable,’’ he said.
He said as per existing practice the officers left Chitral two days in advance of the scheduled date of meeting and returned the next week, thus hampering the routine office work. He said people coming to the district headquarters from distant villages returned in despair when the concerned officer or official was absent.
The official said the non-local officers extended their stay in Peshawar for many weeks in the winter using their official vehicles.
He said video link-based meetings were quite feasible as a number of non-government organisations had introduced the mode. He said two years ago then deputy commissioner had started steps to introduce the video conferencing, but the idea was dropped when he was transferred from the district before the 2018 general elections.
When contacted, Lower Chitral deputy commissioner Naveed Ahmed favoured the idea and said it would definitely improve the system of governance and stop the truancy of officers. However, he did not show his intension of introducing the system in the district. (Dawn)
