Terror-torn Karbi Anglong gets ISO certificate

Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, more in the news for militant violence, has become the fourth district in the country to get an ISO 9001-2000 standard

Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, more in the news for militant violence, has become the fourth district in the country to get an ISO 9001-2000 standard certification.

The deputy commissioner’s office has received this certificate from Det Norkse Veritas (DNV) for having introduced quality management practices, a rare distinction in India, the previous three such districts being Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, and Latur and Jalgaon in Maharashtra.

Deputy Commissioner M Angamuthu said it was primarily an effort to tone up the personnel involved in running the administrative set-up that helped earn this distinction.

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“We carried out a total quality management drive in the DC’s office during the past one year which equipped the staffers to handle the pressure of public grievances on a day-to-day basis, without letting files pile up,” Angamuthu told The Indian Express from Diphu, the district headquarters, on Monday.

Angamuthu and his team of officers also introduced e-governance. “Our officers and staff are today able to issue all kinds of certificates to the public within the same day,” Angamuthu said, adding “the officials were never trained to do so and not provided with the proper infrastructure to carry out their job”.

“Introduction of e-governance has also resulted in improved transparency, speedy information dissemination, higher administrative efficiency and improved public services in sectors, including transportation, education, power, health, water, security and the state administration and municipal services,” the DC said.

A Public Facilitation Centre (PFC) set up in the DC’s office with the support of NIC has increased the efficiency of services to such an extent that issuing a caste certificate now takes only about 30 minutes, he said.

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The services in other places of the district have also been speeded up with the help of 10 Internet kiosks in addition to 11 CICs, with applications now being disposed of within a week’s time.

“It is very important to dispose of applications for certificates, because it helps a large number of students and job-seekers to meet the deadline. And Karbi Anglong being a backward district with a lot of communication constraints, e-governance has come as a big boon,” Angamuthu said.