Nagpur, India: Prithviraj Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, India, launched Geoportal of Maharashtra Remote Sensing and Application Centre (MRSAC). He said, “We are moving from e-governance to g-governance using data generated by scientific institutes like MRSAC. But sadly enough we have silly policies which do not allow high resolution maps and data generated by our own agencies to our own government departments and people in the name of security and defence. If someone was to use such data there are other ways to procure them from international agencies or through Google.”
Chavan reiterated the need to make the ambitious project of revenue department of resurveying the entire state with support from the union government in stipulated five years at a cost of INR 5000 crore. He suggested that instead of using satellites low flying aircraft of department of space with state-of-art cameras can generate information which can be used for better planning.
Maharashtra’s Minister of Water Supply and Sanitation, Laxmanrao Dhobale, after accepting the maps on behalf of the department, said that they would go a long way in providing water security to each village in the state. Vinay Dadhwal, director of Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), the MRSAC director Vinod Bothale explained the utility of the maps and portal.
Source: Times of India
