It’s ironic that our Union Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, is announcing the launch of an AI model when the basic infrastructure for responding to emails is still lacking. I’ve had firsthand experience of this, with the Panchayat office and Vigilance department not responding to emails and the Directorate of Panchayats taking one and a half months to reply. It’s even more surprising that they display their email IDs on the official website but don’t bother to respond to emails. And the issue doesn’t stop there “ even though the RTO has gone online, I have still faced inconvenience at the Ponda RTO with constant delays and revisits. The head of the department citing excuses like staff undergoing training is just not acceptable. AI is secondary to having a well-skilled and technologically educated staff in the administration. We need to get the basics right before we can think of launching advanced technologies like AI. The government should focus on building a robust and responsive administrative system, where citizens can easily get in touch with officials and have their issues resolved.
