CHENNAI: For the past three years, M Sivaraj, an RTI activist from Vellore, has been spending Rs 1,000 every month towards travel and other expenses. The former tahsildar travels at least 900km a month to appear at hearings conducted by the State Information Commission (SIC) at its headquarters in Chennai.
With SIC planning to introduce video conferencing for petitioners, Sivaraj and other petitioners will have less trouble in future.
The hi-tech facility funded by the Union government will be introduced after the general elections. "The contract has been awarded to the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), for development. We hope that petitioners will not have to travel all the way from different parts of the state to Chennai, spending time and money. Officials, too, need not reclaim amounts from the public exchequer for travel expenses," SIC chief commissioner S Ramakrishnan told The Times of India.
With the district headquarters in Tamil Nadu having video-conferencing facilities at the collectorates, it would take only a few months to stabilise the system, Ramakrishnan added.
The plan envisages the commission having a state-wide area network connectivity from ELCOT's data centre in Taramani or the common service centre at the DMS campus in Teynampet. ELCOT will install equipment and related infrastructure, costing Rs 13 lakh.
On an average, SIC receives 40,000 petitions every year, the highest in India, seeking details from various government departments. Almost 90% of the petitions come from the southern districts. About 30 cases are taken up for hearing daily.
"If such devices are not introduced forthwith, there will be deterioration in services rendered by the commission," Ramakrishnan pointed out.
The commission has six commissioners, besides the chief commissioner, to look into appeals.
The commission is holding talks with the Centre for Good Governance (CGG), a central government agency, to develop software modules for designing a website, complete with the decisions and cause list so that applicants from any part of the state can get updated information on cases.
It also plans to include success stories and the status of applications on the website, with the application status being conveyed through SMSes, too.
"The decision to seek CGG support came about after the National Informatics Centre, which designed the SIC website, failed in uploading relevant data over the past four months," official sources said.
The urgency in dealing with a flood of applications has put SIC in a spot. With only 15 stenographers available for administrative work, analysing information has become a problem area.
julie.mariappan@timesgroup.com
