The
New Indian Express: Chandigarh: Sunday, 09 November 2014.
Adding
another feather to its e-cap, the gram panchayat of Bibipur in Haryana has
started replying to RTI queries on email within two days of the application.
Setting an
example of transparency in governance, all important documents of the panchayat
are being uploaded on Facebook and made available on Whatsapp. There is a
proposal to make the village WiFi-enabled as well. The village already has its
own website.
“In the last
four years we have replied to more than 300 RTI queries. As our panchayat got
two national awards, the expectations of people were high from us. Most of them
wanted to know about our working style, the work done by us, budgeting,
expenditure and we replied,’’ he added.
Considering
the growing number of RTI queries, the panchayat last week decided to start
replying to RTI queries that are sent to the official email ID of the village
(sarpanch@bibipur.com) free of cost within two days. “In the last one week, we
have replied to 17 RTI queries. We have no pending RTI queries now,’’ Jaglan
said.
“Besides
this, we have put our audit reports, budget, bills, resolutions, photos and
other paper work of various schemes on Facebook (Sunil Jaglan) and all these
are sent to more than 50 groups on Whatsapp,” he said. On Facebook, the village
connects with 3,000 people. On Whatsapp to around 2,500 people.
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