Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday dedicated the country’s first Remote Expert Government Services (REGS) to help aggrieved citizens easily lodge complaints against crimes using remote FIR registration kiosks.
He inaugurated the first such kiosk, set up by Cisco, at Mantri Square mall in Malleswaram.
The State government is setting up the kiosk as a pilot project. The facility would be extended to the entire State if it succeeds, he said. He was confident that it would be a big success. Karnataka has been at the forefront of technology adoption with respect to public service delivery and REGS is another step in that direction. The solution from Cisco would make it easy for citizens to lodge complaints. The initiative would help improve citizen-police relationship in the State, the chief minister said.
Equipped with Cisco TelePresence system with high-definition video and high-quality audio, a touch screen, virtual keyboard and Cisco collaboration technology, the kiosk will allow citizens to launch a live collaboration session with a designated police officer based at the Traffic Management Centre.
The complainant can sign, print and scan documents virtually as part of the experience.
They will also get an opportunity to review the complaint with an expert, thus ensuring that the FIR filed is error-free. Once the FIR is filed, the citizen will receive a print copy of the FIR as an instant acknowledgement.
The police will roll out the remote FIR kiosk as a pilot project at the mall for a trial period of three months. The kiosk will be accessible 24X7, from where citizens may interact face to face with a remote investigation officer to expedite the entire process of filing an FIR.
The kiosk will serve as the central location for FIRs related to 105 law & order police stations and 42 traffic police stations of the City. A citizen need not necessarily visit any police station to lodge an FIR.
Home Minister K J George said due to many procedures, citizens hesitate to turn up at the police stations to report crimes. DG&IGP L R Pachuau said the initiative would help in building strong and sustainable police-citizen relations. Bangalore City Police Commissioner M N Reddi said the remote kiosks will expedite the entire process of filing an FIR and enable the police to be more approachable and accessible to citizens.