The Government has taken steps to launch a project to digitally map the country to create a database and the pilot project will be started from the Gampha district today. The Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Defence with the assistance of the Kelaniya University has launched this special project, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Deputy Dilan Perera said at a press conference held at Government Information Department.
“This should have been done earlier. However Minister Basil Rajapaksa had identified the importance of this task. Now MoD wants to transform the technology to development of the country” Minister stated.
The aim of the project is to utilize geographical and residence data for decisions-making purposes. The project which is a pilot project
would be carried out in 3 stages.
District Secretary of Gampaha, J.J. Rathnasiri said the first step towards recording data would be initiated at Nahena, in Kelaniya and
in five days they hope to cover the whole of the Gampaha District.
“About 800,000 stickers and the same quantity of questionnaires are going to be used in the district by the Grama Nilahdharis to record
information which would be done voluntarily and without payment,” he explained.Global Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS), along with the Google Map would be used for this database.
The gathering of information would be carried out in three stages; first the Grama Niladhari gathers information, then the IT experts
from the Defence Ministry photograph locations and then the IT Laboratory of the Kelaniya University would co-operate by storing the
data and developing the database.
He pointed out that the database would be updated every month with help from the General Survey Department, Electricity Board and the Water Board.
“This is important since until now, we haven’t had a user friendly system to record information of each citizen. Each time, people had to
be sent from door to door,” he said.
The Research and Development Director General of the Defence Ministry, Major General Prasad Samarasinghe explained that for the past six to ten months they have been working to develop the database on the initiation of the Secretary of the Defence Ministry, Basil Rajapaksa.
“During the war, we didn’t have a complete data base in Colombo. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted to start the digital
mapping project. Research and Development unit of MoD digitally mapped the Wellawatta area as a pilot project. It took three months. Finally it was successful. After that we mapped Dehiwela and Bambalapitiya areas also. These experiences would help to continue this project” said Maj.Gen. Prasad Samarasinghe.
“At the moment Government agencies don’t have proper data bases. There are no sufficient data available for policy-makers. For a economic development, updated and completed data is needed. This project is for that. We are hoping to complete it soon with the help of Grama Niladaris, Samurdhi Officers and Agriculture Research and Productivity Development Officers. They are working voluntarily. Other assisting departments are providing data freely. Hence the project cost is low” said Economic Development Ministry Director General Prof.Sunanda Madduma Bandara.
source:News.lk