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Digital Inclusion, E-Government

Bihar introduces videoconferencing for RTI complaints

By Anshupriya Jha | 3 August 2011

Bihar’s State Information Commission (BSIC) has launched a video conferencing system for speedy disposal of the complaints related to the Right To Information (RTI) Act. Bihar has become the first state in the country to do so.

This initiative is meant to help dispose complaints against Public Information Officers (PIOs) for denying or withholding complete information under the RTI Act to the citizens, said State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) AK Choudhary.

The BSIC office at state capital Patna will cater to all complainants across the state for now. All district headquarters have been linked to the SIC for the purpose. Launching the facility in Patna, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said it will be gradually extended up to the block-level.

Speaking to FutureGov, BSIC Secretary-cum-Registrar-cum-First Appellate Authority B.B. Pandey said the District Magistrate offices in the districts already boast of videoconferencing facilities and that they have been connected to the BSIC office now. The Commission will decide a particular date and time for each district and inform the District Information Officer (DIO) and the applicants who can then come to the District Magistrate’s office for the hearing.

The CIC had organised a hearing for Nalanda district on August2 and has plans to conduct similar sessions for Madhubani and Nawada on August 22 and 26 respectively. Going forward, BSIC will regularly organize such hearings, said Pandey.

The initiative follows the immensely successful ‘Jaankaari’ – SIC’s ICT-based facilitation centre. It especially enables the rural populace as well as those living in far-off areas to register their grievances easily via the phone by dialing 155331. People can also dial 155310 to enquire anything about the Act.

BSIC has cleared around 49,000 out of 53,000 RTI applications.

RTI is an important tool in the hands of people and can go a long way in uprooting corruption.

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