Haryana village sets up portal, replies to RTI queries within 2 days

Times of India: Chandigarh: Monday, 08 December 2014.

A village in the Jat heartland of Haryana's Jind district has gone hi-tech, setting up its own portal to make the working of gram panchayat transparent and replying to RTI queries within two days.

Bibipur, one of the largest villages in Jind district with a population of 5,000, is also making plans to make the village Wi-Fi enabled.

"The idea behind the exercise is to make the working of gram panchayat transparent," village head Sunil Jaglan, 33, said.

Jaglan, who is a post graduate, said that all the documents pertaining to the functioning of village panchayat are being uploaded on the portal. "These documents comprise reports, including social audit, working reports and bills," he said.

The village has a history of farming with villagers sowing wheat, rice, sugarcane and bajra. Now Jaglan has plans to make it Wi-Fi enabled.

"We are planning to have Wi-Fi facility for the village. For that the panchayat has passed a resolution and approached the panchayat department of Haryana government to get the permission," he said.

People in the village will be able to use Internet free of cost, he said, adding that, at present, only the panchayat office is Wi-Fi enabled and has a range of 80 metres.

"We are receiving many RTI Act queries on the working of the panchayat. So it has been decided that now onwards if any RTI query comes through e-mail, it will be replied to within two days," he said. The panchayat had replied to over 30 queries under RTI Act free of cost through e-mail.