After making life easier in various quarters, here’s another area technology is all set to storm.
After making life easier in various quarters, here’s another area technology is all set to storm.
Soon, RTI applicants will be able to track the status of their queries, directed to the Karnataka Information Commission, via SMS. The service is being tested and will be formally inaugurated in the first week of January.
The first three messages concerning acknowledgement of complaint, date of hearing and date of disposal will be free of cost. But each additional text message will cost the complainant 10 paisa, said HN Krishna, in-charge chief information commissioner.
There’s more. Those in rural areas will not need to travel to the cities to attend hearings of complaints as the commission has also invested in video-conference facility.
It was inaugurated on Wednesday at the MS Building when the commission dialled studios in five districts, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Koppal, Karwar and Shimoga. Cases mostly pertained to delay and denial of information and were at least six months old.
Chandrakant from Shimoga charged that public information commissioner (PIO) Jayanna, an officer with the CMC, did not give him complete information and also delayed it.
The officer was tutored before the hearing via video-conference, he alleged. Interrupting Chandrakant, information commissioner JS Virupakshaiah directed Jayanna to explain why he did not provide full information within 30 days.
Complaints continued to pour in even as the commission dealt with the backlog. Video-conferencing is expected to aid disposing of cases and clear the backlog. The conference would be held every Saturday and sessions would be planned a month in advance, Krishna said.
Some activists, however, were unhappy with the development.
“Complainants are interrupted and cut off abruptly. They are not allowed to make a case against the officer who delayed or gave incomplete information. This will bring down the number of complaints,” said Vikram Simha, an RTI activist.
He added that the trend was the same at the Central Information Commission too, which has been making use of video-conferencing. By not giving cases a fair hearing, the quasi-judicial body is doing injustice, he said.
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