From the first week of January, this apex body of the Right to Information (RTI) in Karnataka will launch an SMS facility for RTI applicants. "The trial will begin this Friday. The facility will help applicants know the number of their case, when it’ll be posted for hearing and also about its disposal. This information will be sent via SMS to the applicant free of cost. Besides, if an applicant wishes to know the status of his/her case, he/she will have to send an SMS to the KIC server at a cost of 10 paise," said Dr H N Krishna, state information commissioner.
Between January and December this year, 15,000 cases have been filed, he said. In fact, the number of applications in rural areas has been on the rise. "We have only two information commissioners now. We take up 12 fresh cases on priority basis every day and deal with eight adjourned ones. On weekends, we hold video conferences and hear district-level cases. This helps reduce transportation expenditure and costs to the applicant," he said.