Amritsar 24 May(Bharatsandesh news ):Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala patron of Amritsar Vikas Manch has demanded to provide RTI facility on phone by Punjab Govt. In a memorandum to the Chief Minister S. Parkash Singh Badal and Punjab Governor Sh.Shiv Raj Patil , Manch leader stated that Bihar Govt. has started a scheme called Jaankari on 29 January 2007 by which any person can register his/ her application under RTI act 2005 on phone . The objective of this scheme is to ensure transparency and to expand its reach to villages, where the literacy rate is low. It is a user friendly ICT (Information and Communications Technology) based facilitation centre to help citizens of Bihar in getting governance related information from public information officers (PIOs) under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI) within stipulated time frame. Use of ICT tools have been widely appreciated by the media and the people because of its user friendly format. It would be very useful for the rural people, who can get information without having to visit the office. Project Report on Jaankari can be down loaded from Bihar Govt. website on the link below:
http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Articles/JAANKARI-pdf-26-03-07.pdf
According to this project,Facilitation Centre “JAANKARI” was designated and authorized to receive phone calls from public at the pre arranged premium rate i.e. a call costing Rs. 10/per call (rupees ten per call) to take care of the prescribed application fee and generate RTI application on behalf of the caller. Arrangements were made by Beltron to have PRI E-I lines of BSNL dial (155311) terminated at the Facilitation Centre. Besides premium rate call number, another five digit number dial (155310) for help line on normal tariff was also made available for general enquiry on RTI and application status etc. Both these numbers have been widely publicized for public knowledge and consumption.
Procedures for filing “Request for Information” is given in detail on: http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Articles/JAANKARI-pdf-26-03-07.pdf
Centre Govt. and Punjab Govt. should also set up the same system , Gumtala urged.
