Want to track Sakala Status? Apply through RTI

BANGALORE: The State government may have launched ‘Sakala’ scheme to ensure timely services. However, it looks like one will have to apply through Right to Information Act (RTI) to track their cases as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) staff is ignorant about the service.Sundara Rajan, a senior citizen, had applied for a Khata certificate under Sakala scheme on April 26 at the Assistant Revenue office in Shivajinagar. But he has not received the required documents till date. He needed the Khata certificate desperately for demolishing an old building on Osborne Road and construct a new one. However, the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act 2011 promises to provide a Khata certificate within three days if data is available and within seven days if data is not available.The Act also says that if the required certificate is not received under the stipulated time, one can approach Additional or Joint Commissioner of the zone. “It has been 14 days since he requested for the document. Now, even if we want to approach higher authorities, we cannot. As the ARO office where we applied has not given Guarantee of Services to Citizen (GSC) number. We cannot check GSC status also,” Kalidasa Reddy, an RTI activist, who is helping Rajan, said.Reddy said that now they have applied for RTI seeking the status. “Government made Sakala so that people can get the required documents without any hassles. But here, BBMP has not given GSC status number, whereas section six (Monitoring the Status of the application) says that every citizen who applies for any citizen-related services shall be provided an application number by the concerned public authority, so that one can monitor status of his or her application online,” he said.When Express contacted the ARO’s office in Shivajinagar, staff from the office said that the ARO was on leave and Shivashankar, the BBMP Joint Commissioner (East) remained unavailable for comments.