Karnataka government acts to stop pornography watching on official computers

BANGALORE: Rattled by a reported CBI dossier about state secretariat employees' prurient interest in watching pornography on official computers during office hours, Karnataka government has decided to install software to block such sites.

"It has come to the government's notice. We have taken a serious view of the matter," state IT and BT Minister S R Patil told reporters, days after CBI found that the internet protocol with kar.nic.in was extensively used by employees to view pornography, particularly in the state secretariat.

CBI, according to reports, had stumbled upon the employees' preoccupation with watching pornography while monitoring the internet activities in government offices during anti-terror surveillance and sent a report to the state Criminal Investigation Department.

Patil said 'firewall' would be installed and other "technical steps" taken to block all such unwanted sites. "This will start from Vidhana Soudha and state secretariat offices here...," he said, adding, action would be taken against erring employees.

He said he was pained to read reports about employees watching pornography during office hours while they had taken the pledge that 'government work is God's work', words that are inscribed at the portal of Vidhana Soudha.