Bihar's Jankari service sets a precedent

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Bihar's Jankari service sets a precedent
as reported in news.indiainfo.com

Sunday, September 14, 2008 17:02 [IST]Patna:Bihar has shown the way in sharing information with people on the functioning of the government under the Right to Information Act at the press of a phone button.

The Jankari (information) service, launched by the Bihar Information Commission last year, has not only set a precedent among states some of which have been in touch with the Bihar government for starting a similar service, but also earned accolades by the World Bank.

The service, inaugurated by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on January 29,2007,is aimed at providing information to a person on government functioning except for those having security implications.

Till the end of July, this year information had been provided to 13,726 people under the service.

Recently a World Bank team of Dr Youngmei Zhou, attached with Institutional Development - South Asia, and Vivek Hansraj Maru, associated with the Counsel Justice Reform Practice Group held a detailed discussion with Chief Information Commissioner Justice (Retd) Shashank Kumar Singh, and P N Narayanan, Information Commissioner on the running of the service.

The team praised the Commission for its endeavour.
Source : PTI

Bihar's Jankari service sets a precedent