Bangalore:
Enthused by the success of "sakala" the citizen charter services, Karnataka government today said it has decided to add Right to Information (RTI) queries to the charter, taking the total services offered under the programme to 152 from eleven departments.
The RTI service will commence from this month end, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs S Suresh Kumar, who has been monitoring the implementation of the Citizen Charter programme, told a press conference after reviewing it with top officials.
The Government extended the Sakala programme throughout the state from April 2, 2012.
In April, ten lakh applications for various services were received and 8.5 lakh applications were disposed off, achieving 98.59 per cent success, Kumar said.
Chitradurga district took the first place in disposal of applications, followed by Uttara Kannada and Davanagere.
Gulbarga was rated lowest district, ranked 30th in disposal of applications under Sakala, Chikmagalur 29th and Bangalore Rural 28th, Mr Kumar said.
The Call Centre set up by the government to redress queries by people recorded 23,000 calls and out of them only four related to Sakala programme.
About 41 per cent of the callers were for general enquiry, 31 per cent on procedures stipulated for sakala programme and 21 per cent wanted information on the Citizen Charter Act, Mr Kumar said.
The government is holding an interactive session with "India Against Corruption", an organisation fighting against corruption, on May 6 to elicit opinion on the programme, Residents Associations in Bangalore on May 8 and a workshop during middle of June, he said.