Question : SETTING UP OF CALL CENTRES

(a) whether Government proposes to set up Call centres for all the departments in each State of the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;

(c) whether the Union Government has received any proposal from the Government of Madhya Pradesh in this regard;

(d) if so, the time by which a decision is likely to be taken in this regard;

(e) whether the Telecom companies have started charging subscribers for calls made to their Customer Care Service Centres;

(f) if so, the details thereof; and

(g) the steps taken/ being taken by the Government in this regard?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SACHIN PILOT)

(a) and (b): No, Sir. However, Department of IT has initiated a proof of concept (PoC) project on Citizen Contact Centre. This is being carried out in 5 states viz..; Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

(c): Yes Sir.

(d): The Government of Madhya Pradesh has established a 25 seat call centre by funding support of the State Government. The proposal received was towards expansion of their operations. The proposal for expansion has not been accepted for funding because it does not get covered under any existing scheme of the DIT.

(e) and (f): Regulation of Telecom Tariff in the country has been mandated to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India(TRAI)vide the TRAI act of 1997. As per the TRAI guidelines, calls made by the subscribers to the call centre number for lodging grievances are free of charge. The calls to the customer care number meant for seeking information/query are also not chargeable in the case the subscriber access information through Interactive Voice Response(IVR) only and do not opt to talk to a customer care agent. However, these calls are chargeable, in case the subscriber opts to talk to a customer agent.

(g): Does not arise in view of (e) & (f) above.