West Bengal is facing a similar issue as Tamil Nadu did a few months back- the anti-open source issue. West Bengal information technology (IT) minister recently urged global IT software giant Microsoft to invest in Bengal, promising all assistance by way of infrastructure and encouragement from the government’s side. And it did provide support to the proprietary software vendor in the form of an MOU with Microsoft, according to which the company will invest in Bengal if the Government of West Bengal vetos anything apart from the use of Microsoft's cloud platform and technology for future e-governance projects.
A state which has been popular for using FOSS has now entered in a conditional pact where they 'willingly' chose to spend money on proprietary software despite the availability of free and open source alternatives. The state government floated a tender for West Bengal Pollution Control Board where they have invited 'Bidding Document for Supply and Installation of Microsoft Windows Operating System (GGS) and Antivirus Software'.
According to the tender, the bidders are required to install Microsoft Windows Operating System 7 (GGS), Microsoft Office (supplied by the Board) and Quick Heal Total Security Antivirus 2011 in the computer systems of the end user and transfer legacy data to the newly transformed environment.
At a point where the central government is exploring option to use FOSS in e-governance projects, the West Bengal government, which was pro-open source, is going backwards. It is worth mentioning here that in WB Pollution Control Board (WBPCB), not only was GNU/Linux adopted extensively, in-house expertise was in place to support and develop FOSS/OSS. Systems like the Environment Management Information System were also developed.
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West Bengal has always shown fondness for FOSS and OSS. Its WB IOTA (Institute of Open Technology and Applications) was set up as an autonomous body with funding from the IT Department. IOTA’s charter includes promotion of FOSS in government and academia and was founded in 2007. Its aim was also to help in the general plan of "getting the support infrastructure for FOSS/OSS adoption" in all Government departments and educational institutions. This was in line with a certain section of advisors, OSS-service providers and others suggestion to 'develop the support infrastructure first'. It achieved a lot in popularising FOSS/OSS, published books, organised a number of training programmes, seminars/workshops on FOSS awareness, e-Governance and adoption.
But, things changed with the government it seems. That is why the community has taken an initiative of filing a petition. The petition has been initiated by the members of the Kolkata chapter of Indian GNU/Linux user group (GLUG).
The Background (Preamble) of the petition says, “We, the members of the Kolkata Chapter of the Indian GNU/Linux user group (www.ilug-cal.info), Free Software Mancha of West Bengal (www.fsmwb.org) and FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) activists across the country have been observing a marked shift towards the adoption of closed source proprietary software by the present Government of West Bengal. This is a retrograde trend that is bound to adversely affect earlier efforts towards adoption of FOSS in e-Governance (at least in some sectors), Education and other sectors by the previous Government and any concept of freedom that the people at large of the state may entertain from foreign interest laden proprietary closed source software.”
In the petition, the members of the community members have demanded
- Declare and implement a FOSS policy at least along the lines of the policy adopted in Kerala and certainly beyond the minimal policy lines in the Central Govt policy.
- Try to understand the concept of 'vendor neutrality and open standards' and follow it in all dealings. All e-Governance projects should be built on top of open platform following open standards .None of taxpayer's money should be spent in buying software licenses and bringing vendor lock-ins and a host of evils in public services.
- Revive bodies like WB-IOTA (that have not been witnessing much activity since the formation of the present Govt) and also form similar bodies for overseeing the adoption of FOSS in all spheres of activity.”
A Mani, the coordinator of the LUG said, “The technical superiority of free and open source software are proven. Most of the Internet giants like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Yahoo uses free software to run their application and infrastructure. In Microsoft's own land, the Obama administration is going for Free software as the means of delivering e-governance. Government departments are known to be the largest consumer of software and a short-sighted policy of the kind is bound to have serious adverse effects beyond the wastage of tax payers money. It is also never too late to make amends.”
The petition was submitted on 3 December 2011 to both the Secretaries and Minister in charge of IT, Govt of West Bengal. Mani says, “We have not heard from them. Obviously, we do not intend to sit and watch. We intend to apply pressure through all quarters including the Central Govt. This is important since not many people in position are keen to take up the cause openly due to political vendetta unleashed by the present state Government.”
GLUG members also plan to go the RTI way to get more information about the shady deals that do not get reported.
It is worth mentioning here that the Tamil Nadu government had to take its anti-open source steps back in the case of distribution of free laptops, because of a similar movement.
The effort is to promote free and open source software, which in a way saves money of the citizens, which they deposit with the state as 'tax'. Mamata Banerjee government could have tried better policies to attract Microsoft's investment than offering a perk like this.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Diksha P Gupta
Quelle/Source: EFYTimes, 10.01.2012
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