RTI to come under Karnataka Guarantee of Services of Citizens Act
10 May, 2012The Karnataka government has decided to add queries pertaining to the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act to the list of 151 services from 11 departments guaranteeing the charter of services to the citizens in a time-bound manner. The charter of services to the citizens in a time-bound manner named “Sakala”, was launched last month under the Karnataka Guarantee of Services of Citizens Act, 2011. A total of 10 lakh applications for various services were received by the Karnataka government during the month while 8.5 lakh applications were disposed of, thereby achieving 98.59 per cent success since the launch of Sakala throughout the State from April 2
Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar, has informed that the queries on RTI would be brought under the purview of Sakala from the end of this month.
The top three districts in the disposal of applications were Chitradurga, followed by Uttara Kannada and Davanagere. The worst performers were Gulbarga, Chikmagalur and Bangalore Rural district. In terms of departments, the disposal of applications Revenue, Commercial Taxes and Transport Departments was the best while Education, Food and Civil Supplies and Health and Family Welfare Departments were the worst.
A 24x7 Call Centre has been set up by the Government to redress queries by people which recorded 23,000 calls. Out of these, only four out of the 145 specific complaints pertained to Sakala programme. The Karnataka Government expects to receive 10 to 15 lakh applications per month in the coming months under Sakala and is undertaking programs for familiarisation and sensitisation of the people.