Pressure is also being put on state electricity boards (SEBs) to expedite the compliance process. Letters have been sent to chief secretaries of various states and executive officers of respective SEBs in this regard, officials added.

This move follows a recent meeting between group of officials overseeing the Y2K preparedness in the government which found these two ministries and the SEBs way behind their compliance deadlines.

The question of embedded systems, used mostly in power and defence establishments, continues to remain an area of concern, officials said.Officials said the ministry of civil aviation has been asked to make its surveillanceradars Y2K compliant by September. The ministry had earlier told the government that the surveillance radars could be made compliant only by November.

Senior government officials have indicated that though compliance work is going on at a hectic pace in ministries such as power, aviation, telecom and railways, lot of ground still remains to be covered.

However, speaking to The Financial Express, Y2K action force chairman and Planning Commission member Montek Singh Ahluwalia expressed confidence that all central government ministries will be fully Y2K-compliant by September 30.

Ahluwalia allayed fears of any funds crunch in government departments to meet Y2K deadlines. ministries have been given adequate authority to allocate resources from within departmental budgets to meet Y2K-compliance deadlines on a priority basis, he said. States have also been asked to step up efforts to be compliant, he added.

The action force is keeping a close tab on Y2K compliance work being done by various departments, hesaid.

It may be noted that action force chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had written a letter to secretaries of various ministries in April this year to submit a report indicating the present status and the proposed action for completing the work related to Y2K. This was done to check out the roadmap that each ministry had chalked out for being Y2K compliant and expedite the preparedness process in meeting deadlines.