Now, an RTI call centre for queries

[ganpat1956]

As Reported by : Manoj Mitta ,TNN (16 Jul 2008, 0148 hrs IST)

NEW DELHI: Taking a leaf out of Bihar's book, the department of information technology (DIT) has come up with the idea of setting up an RTI call centre which will allow applicants to seek information over the phone from any of the central government departments and organizations across the country.

The call centre will save citizens the trouble not only of writing and posting the RTI applications to different public authorities but also of buying postal orders or demand drafts for paying the nominal fee of Rs 10.

All that the applicant will have to do is to make his query over the phone and the call centre will do the rest: It will convert his taped request into a written application and forward the same to the public authority concerned for providing the desired information within the provisions of the RTI Act.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT), which is the nodal agency for RTI, is holding a meeting this Friday to consider DIT's radical proposal labelled "Phone pe RTI."

Officials from MTNL and BSNL have also been invited to the meeting since the proposed call centre is meant to have one number throughout the country and calls to that number are meant to be treated as local calls every where.

Another important invitee is the secretary of the Central Information Commission (CIC), as the call centre is proposed to deal with appeals too. DIT has devised the technology for the call centre in such a manner that just by dialling its number and speaking into his phone, a citizen can successively file his RTI application to any public authority, the first statutory appeal before the same public authority and then the second appeal before CIC, the independent appellate body. The application fee due under the RTI Act is collected through the telephone bill.

Much as it sounds ambitious, there is a precedent to the call centre proposed at the central level. Bihar has the distinction of pioneering this concept. The RTI call centre in Bihar, which has been functioning since January 2007, is equipped to entertain verbal applications to state public authorities in English, Hindi, Maithili and Bhojpuri.

Since it does require any identity proof nor reasons for seeking any information, the RTI Act accommodates the informal approach of a government-run call centre using no more than a taped phone call as the whole basis for initiating the process of accessing information held by public authorities.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/I...ow/3238588.cms

[ooom6]

good news.it is welcomed and good if all states follow suit

[mindskills]

What is the number for this call centre? Anyone?

[karira]

Originally Posted by mindskills

What is the number for this call centre? Anyone?

It has only been "proposed" and is still an "idea".