This is a decade when e-governance and information technology are the buzz words in every government office. There are examples of successful implementation of virtual offices in national and international organisations. These days it does not matter which part of the world the chief executive officer (CEO) of a company is based, he can look after his organisation through the e-controls from anywhere. 

In this era, then, does it matter if railway minister Mamata Banerjee is in West Bengal (that is, after all, where her constituency as MP is) and monitors her juniors through IT tools? The distance should not be an issue especially in the case her ministry, which was the first to bring the success of IT and e-governance in India.

When a train traveler can book a ticket for his journey from anywhere in the world through the IRCTC website, why should there be location constraints on the minister? If meetings can happen through videoconferencing, decisions can be taken on e-mails and the files can travel over a secure virtual network, do we need the minister to still come to Rail Bhawan and sign the attendance register?

So, in the era of technology innovation, does it matter if a minister operates from Delhi or Kolkata?