NDTV: New Delhi: Thursday, December 07, 2017.
People can
apply online to the Election Commission to get into the voters list, update
their address or track the status of their request. But if they want some
information from the commission, they will have to go back to a paper and pen
format.
The Election
Commission has refused to comply with the right to information, or RTI, law
that requires public authorities to respond to information requests within 30
days if the request is made through the government's online information portal.
Official
documents show that 1,951 right to information requests had been filed through
the portal with the election commission but it hadn't responded to a single
one.
RTI activist
Neeraj Sharma said he was surprised at the Election Commission's insistence to
demand applicants send across their requests by post. "This is violation
of a right given to us by law," said Mr Sharma.
The
government suggests the poll body was last year linked to its online portal and
25 EC officials trained to deal with the information requests. But there was
little that it could do to make the powerful commission fall in line.
To a
questionnaire sent to the Election Commission, the poll body said it was
"not feasible" to handle all RTI related issues through the online
portal since a majority of the applications related to the Chief Electoral
Officers of states.
And the
central government's RTI portal was only designed for central government
departments.
RTI
activists, however, point out that this was not a situation which was peculiar
to the election commission. Most central government departments routinely
receive information requests that pertain to the state governments. When they
do receive such requests, they either pass on the requests to the state or tell
applicants to apply afresh to the Chief Electoral Officer concerned.
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