Hemant Kumar ; Place: Bangalore ; Agency: DNA ; Saturday, Sep 4, 2010 ;
For the past one month, retired school teacher S Venkatachala, 62, is running from pillar to post to get an overhead electric line passing over his site shifted so he can start constructing his dream house. “It will be done by next week” is the only answer he gets on each visit to Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) office.
But come November 1, Rajyotsava Day, Venkatachala, and others like him, will have it much easier as redressing grievances would be faster, simpler and more transparent.
They need not run from one government office to another.
As a special Rajyotsava gift to the people, the e-governance department will use information technology as a tool to speed up redressing grievances. The grievances, complaints and requests for details through Right To Information (RTI) will be channelled via an exclusively set up BPO with strict deadlines for respective departments to comply. The system will help people monitor the status of their petitions.
It will also push officials concerned to redress the grievances or provide the required information within a fixed time-frame.
Each petition is logged and a track number given to the complainant for tracking the status of the complaint, MN Vidyashankar, principal secretary, e-governance department, told DNA.
Grievances, requests for RTI information can be sent via email or phone to the BPO which then directs them to the correct department. Automatic reminders from the BPO will force the respective departments to act faster to beat the deadline set for each grievance to be redressed, Vidyashankar said.
The new system will be launched on November 1 and will eliminate the need for people to run from one government office to another to plead with officials to know the status of their petitions of various grievances or get information on RTI applications.
“We have floated tenders to set up a manned BPO. It will receive requests seeking information under the
RTI Act through phone or email. The requests will be forwarded to the concerned departments with specific timelines (deadlines) for compliance and furnish the information to the concerned applicant.”
He said “The solution has built-in-mechanisms to send periodic reminders (to respective department officials) within the specific timelines,” Vidyashankar said. The new system on redressing grievances will be first installed at the chief minister’s office.
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