Karnataka, better known for its leading Indian and global IT companies, is all set to open a business process outsourcing (BPO) centre - the first of its kind in the country � exclusively for filing petitions under the Right to Information Act. Citizens need to call up the centre, expected to be located in Bangalore, to file RTI applications, in lieu of some charges.

�We will open a call centre in Bangalore for the process and a person can call up the centre and file an RTI against any department in the state. Unlike other BPO calls this will be a premium call and the user will be charged. The charge will be considered as the fee for filing RTI,� M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, e-Governance Department, Govt of Karnataka told Business Standard.

Called as �Mahiti� (means information in Kannada), the project will be launched in June. Along with the BPO, the government will also club it with grievance redressal supervision and monitoring system to track the RTI complaints. According to Vidyashankar, once operational, the BPO will work for 12 hours a day. �After studying the response, we might extend the timing to make it available round-the-clock. With this, more people can seek information through the RTI route,� he said. The medium for filing the petition will be in Kannada and English.