Central Information Commission wants ministries to put up key FAQs on websites

Economic Times‎‎: New Delhi: Friday, September 09, 2016.

Compensation to accident victims, number of railways passes issued, hiring of government bungalows for marriage functions, status of public interest litigations (PILs), beneficiaries of government grants - these are some of the subjects that Central Information Commission (CIC) wants the government to proactively disclose information on regularly on websites.

In a bid to reduce its ever-increasing workload, the transparency watchdog has compiled "frequently asked questions" list for 70 central ministries. The Commission is now sitting down with each ministry to brief them on how to proactively disclose information on their websites on these subjects so that fewer applicants file requests under Right to Information (RTI) Act.

A senior official told ET, "We have compiled a list of subjects which are commonly asked by RTI applicants. If the applicants get this information readily on the website, the number of RTI applications would reduce and the Commission would not get so many complaints and appeals. It would also reduce the RTI workload of the government."

Chief Information Commissioner RK Mathur and Information Commissioner handling RTI issues of a ministry are holding meetings with ministries for the last two weeks flagging these subjects.

The most number of appeals pertain to courts, defence services, banks, railways and human resource development (HRD). The subjects identified range from promotion and recruitment matters to tenders, late running of trains, pay scales, provident funds. While the interactions with the ministries have been largely positive, the most common refrain from the government is that this information exists already on the website.

"The Commission does not accept this and we have been putting forth the point that then the presentation of information and content needs to change. So many people cannot be asking similar questions if information is so readily available. Something is amiss. We have been telling the ministry that now you need to ask - why are people still asking. Maybe something is wrong. So rectify it," said the official.