In 3 months, Delhi govt to accept RTI applications online

Indian Express: New Delhi: Wednesday, January 27, 2016.

As a part of its e-governance initiatives, the Delhi government will begin accepting online filing of Right to Information (RTI) applications within the next quarter.

According to government sources, the online RTI project is in the pipeline along with the project to set up e-Mandis, which will also make the sale of agricultural produce more transparent.

The project will help citizens file applications seeking information pertaining to any govt department, make payments online and receive replies through email.

Currently, RTI applications are filed in person or by post and the applications are affixed with postal orders of Rs 10.

The online applications, sources said, will have a payment gateway like that on any e-commerce platform and payments will be enabled by credit or debit cards, or netbanking. The government is currently working on putting the technical wherewithal in place to ensure the information sought through the RTI is channeled to the right department. A back-end set up will also have to be created to channel the RTI fees to the right department, said sources.

In addition, the government is also training its officials to gradually shift the RTI setup to a paperless office. Sources said training of government employees will also take some time before all RTI operations become paperless. The government, however, will rope in various departments to be able to complete the process in the next three months or less.

 About the e-Mandi project, sources said it was conceptualised to regulate the prices of agricultural produce and eliminate the monopoly of some vendors.

This will ensure that details of all products are online. If the sale of some product is stuck, their availability or otherwise can be seen online, said a source. The project is still at an infant stage and will take time to be planned and executed.

While both the projects have received the government’s nod, the cost involved in setting them up is still being worked out, said officials. The majority of the expenses, they said, would be on setting up the online platforms and back-end operations.