ETTelecom.com:
New Delhi: Thursday, 10 December 2015.
Paytm founder
Vijay Shekhar Sharma has agreed to sponsor 1,000 Right to Information requests
for onlineRTI.com, a Bengaluru-based platform that helps people file these
applications online.
"RTI is
a good mechanism for transparency in governance and it has truly brought some
power to the common man. People have been truly empowered by using this
tool," Sharma told ET.
Sharma was
approached by the onlineRTI team earlier this month during an 'Ask-me-Anything'
session - an interactive session on the social networking website Reddit, where
a famous guest is often asked questions in a live chat environment.
Online RTI is
a for-profit platform. It charges Rs 99-199 per RTI application and several of
its users come from small cities and towns. It uses Paytm's gateway for
accepting payments, and the team observed that most of the application
transactions fell through at the payment stage.
Online RTI
has so far received 1,24,000 RTI application requests, but only 40,000 were
filed because the applicants could not afford to pay the fees. "We thought
if there is a small hurdle of cost, how about supporting it," said Sharma.
The platform
plans to use the money pledged by Sharma - around Rs 2 lakh - to support public
interest and some personal RTIs over this month. "We are planning to
support social RTI, for instance something like a road fund or an MLA fund,
which is beneficial to the society. Or say RTIs related to widow pension where
we know the user cannot afford it," cofounder Vinoth Ranganathan told ET.
Users who
want to file an RTI need to fill in a simple form, and the team at onlineRTI
will draft the application by paying government fees and send it through
registered post. Sharma's contribution will be implemented through coupon codes
at the payment stage. OnlineRTI files about 2,000-3,000 RTI requests, on an
average, per month.
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