Bihar leads the country with first Right to Information call centre

Patna, Aug.15 : 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