CM's office goes live, only for a while

On Wednesday, Gowda inaugurated the live streaming facility at his home office. He said the facility would be extended to the offices of ministers in a phased manner as many of his Cabinet colleagues had shown interest in adopting the technology to bring in transparency. The e-governance department will extend the facility to the offices, he added.

Presently, people can only watch the video of his offices. Efforts are also being made to feed audio in the coming days. Steps are being taken to make the video available on smart phones, the chief minister said. Gowda said the Government would shortly introduce a system wherein citizens could submit their questions under the RTI Act at BangaloreOne centres or online.

Live streaming

To watch the live video of the chief minister's offices, both at Vidhana Soudha and at his home office ‘Krishna,’ log on to the official website of the State government - www.karnataka.gov.in - click on the button “CM Live” and the live streaming opens in another browser window. The page provides two options: Vidhana Soudha or home office. Depending on  where the Chief Minister is, citizens can access the live feed.

CCTV cameras have been installed at the offices and feed from the cameras will be connected to streaming servers of the Content Delivery Networks, which will beam the video live.

The e-governance department has installed the facility with the assistance of the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.

Technical snag

Just a few hours after the chief minister launched the live streaming at his office, the facility apparently developed a technical snag. The official portal of the Government displayed only a blank screen through the day.

When this reporter called up the number on the website - 080-22253424 (chief minister's office), an official said there was some problem with the facility and it would take about a week's time for people to watch the video live.

None of the officials from the e-governance department, including Principal Secretary M N Vidyashankar, were available for comment.