From October 31, the Right To Information (RTI) replies can be accessed online by all, not just the applicant.

Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Friday, October 24, 2014.

The Centre, in an attempt to achieve better transparency in governance, has directed all its ministries and departments to post responses to RTI applications on their websites. So far, only the RTI applicant seeking information from a ministry or any other office used to get the reply through post.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued an official memorandum recently directing all ministries and departments to take immediate action to ensure uploading of responses to RTI applications and first appeal on their websites starting on October 31.

The DoPT,which issued the guidelines in April last year, has reminded the departments that the public authorities are obliged to proactively disclose RTI applications and appeals received by them and their responses on their websites. However, it added, the RTI applications and appeals received and their responses relating to the personal information of an individual may not be disclosed, if they do not serve any public interest.

The DoPT has already initiated the process of uploading RTI responses on the RTI online portal through a new feature  which is being extended to other ministries and departments. For displaying the RTI applications and replies, an option is provided to the Central Public Information Officers (CPIO) and First Appellate Authority (FAA) to upload these information.