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Submitted by Divya Jyoti Jaipuriar
Bihar leads the country with first Right to Information call centre
[Moderator Note: RTI Call Centre in Bihar "Jankari" can be reached from anywhere in Bihar by dialling the numbers: 155311(For filing RTI application/appeals/complaints) and 155310 (For Guidance and for enquiring about status of your application/appeal/complaint)]
By Ajay Kumar
Patna, Aug.15, 2008 (ANI): With the first Right to Information call centre of India existing in Patna for 11 years (January 1997), Bihar can today boast of being way ahead of other States in motivating its natives to seek information from government through the RTI.
The state has set an example for others to stay ahead of on development works and introducing schemes.
“This is the first RTI call centre of India. Though it can be accessed nation-wide, but it will benefit Bihar the most. Earlier, people used to go to separate departments to get the information, but now the information is just a call away,” said Rohit Kumar, an assistant team leader at the Jankari Call Centre.
The call centre is functioning under Call 2 Connect India, a private limited company.
“For the first time, we have introduced an information centre through telecom services under the department of RTI. Today, other than people of Bihar, this scheme is also being enjoyed by the other states of India,” claimed State Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Recently, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’’s reportedly asked the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states to adopt the ”Bihar model” for RTI call centers while giving Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a reason to take pride in the State gradually becoming ”role model”.
The Central government has implemented Right to Information (RTI) Act in every State of India in which an applicant has to fill up one form and submit it to an information centre with a minimum amount in order to get a particular set of information.
Most of the people, however, find it difficult and discouraging to commute to the information centres for obtaining forms for queries. To provide a solution to this problem, an RTI call centre named “Jankari” (information) was opened on January 29th in 2007. (ANI)
Submitted by Divya Jyoti Jaipuriar
It's tough seeking information under RTI Act
14 Aug 2008, 0344 hrs IST, Faizan Ahmad,TNN
PATNA: "DM se rangdari?" yelled the district magistrate (DM) of Buxar at a social activist, Shiv Prakash Rai. "You sign this paper or else...," the DM continued.
Rai's crime? He used RTI and asked for details of schemes being executed under the Prime Minister's Rojgar Yojana.
As a defiant Rai refused to be cowed down, a furious DM called police and got him arrested on the charge of demanding Rs 25,000 as "rangdari" from him. Rai, 48, languished in jail for about a month in February.
Rai told TOI he had earlier approached the district authorities to get the details. They shooed him away. Then he approached the State Information Commission (SIC) which directed the DM to reply to the petitioner's queries.
The DM sent out a messenger to call Rai. "It was February 1. The SDO and district welfare officer were also present in the DM office when I went there," he recalled and added the paper the DM wanted him to sign read something like "I have received the information I had asked for".
After Rai's arrest, a representation was made to chief minister Nitish Kumar who ordered an inquiry into the matter. Secretariat sources said the Buxar SP almost confirmed the allegations. The DM was shifted.
The CM is aware of the reluctance of most of the officials to part with information. "RTI Act is an effective tool to secure justice, but the problem is some officials with old mindset are hesitant to make official information public," Nitish admitted.
Social activist Parveen Amanullah, who has formed Soochna Ka Adhikar Manch to make people aware of the RTI Act in the state's small towns, recalled her own experience when she asked for certain information from Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).
"The hospital administration wrote to me that I would have to deposit Rs 5 lakh as cost photocopying 2.5 lakh pages containing the information I had asked for," she said.
To her relief, however, the SIC directed the PMCH to provide the information free. "The matter was settled when I agreed to only go through the papers and picked up photocopies of about 1,000 pages," said Parveen Amanullah, wife of a senior bureaucrat.
Recalling another instance of how dearly it costs to seek info under RTI, she said one of her Manch activists, Chandra Deep Singh of Maner in Patna district, was implicated in a case of rape attempt by police when the septuagenarian sought a status report on a case pending against him.
SIC spokesman Rambadan Baruah admitted some officials are still hesitant to share information. "Things have improved though after the SIC ordered posting of public information officers in each government department and office," he said.
He said 9,000-odd cases regarding denial of info have been filed in the SIC so far and the SIC has fined 236 officials for sitting on applications seeking info.
Buxar's Rai has now taken it upon himself to make people at villages aware of the RTI.