The
Hindu: Vijayawada: Sunday, 21 September 2014.
Giving in to
the rising complaints about delay in getting letters pertaining to case
hearings under Right to Information (RTI) Act, the A.P. State Information
Commission is planning to send Short Message Service (SMS) to complainants,
Public Information Commissioners and Appellate authorities.
This move
comes in the wake of complaints from RTI applicants about lack of communication
or the delay in speed posts from the Commission about cases to address
grievances of the applicants. Every month, nearly 400 letters are despatched
through speed posts but applicants complain about lack of communication or
delay in receiving the letters, said M. Vijaya Nirmala, State Information
Commissioner here on Saturday.
To fix these
problems, there are plans to send SMS on mobiles to the applicants, besides
authorities concerned. The SMS will have details pertaining to case number,
venue for the meeting, timing and other details, she said.
“We will
explore the idea of having a tie-up with mobile service providers, especially
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for taking up this project,” said Ms. Nirmala.
In addition
to this, instructions have been issued to Directorate of Medical Education to
ensure that all corporate hospitals display the tariffs to be charged for
different diagnostics tests. Despite this being mandatory for hospital
managements, many were not complying with these instructions.
In the
current medical practice of diagnostics and treatment, patients were being
asked to undergo several diagnostics tests before commencing treatment. There
are several complaints from patients about hospitals collecting exorbitant
charges for tests. To avoid this menace, A.P. Private Medical Care
Establishments Act, made it mandatory for hospitals to display tariffs for
tests, she said while addressing a press conference here.
Ms. Nirmala
said to offer better service and to address grievances of RTI applicants,
special meetings would be conducted on every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at
Sub-Collector’s Office in the city. Applicants can lodge complaints or give
suggestions on 96188-66599.