The Quint: Mumbai: Saturday, December 16, 2017.
In the last
nine months, the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Department of
Personnel & Training (DoPT) have been writing to each other about RTI
Online. While the ECI wants its name to be removed from the RTI Online Portal,
the DoPT has other plans.
In the midst
of this tussle, 100s of RTI applications addressed to the ECI remain unanswered
on the RTI Online portal.
Factly had
earlier reported on how the ECI is reluctant to be part of RTI Online, the
online portal of the Government of India that is used for filing Right to
Information (RTI) applications online.
It is now
known that close to 2,000 RTI applications addressed to the ECI remain
unanswered on the RTI Online portal. Amidst the ongoing tussle between the
government and ECI, the citizen is the ultimate sufferer.
‘Remove
our name from the portal: ECI’
In February
2017, the Under Secretary and the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of
the ECI wrote to the DG of the National Informatics Center with a request that
the ECI’s name be immediately removed from the RTI Online portal since it was
not a part of it.
In response
to that letter from the ECI, the Under Secretary in the DoPT said that it is
not possible to remove ECI’s name from the portal since it was not an exempted
organization (as per Section 24 of the RTI act). Further, he offered training
to the nodal officers in ECI in case they face difficulties in using the RTI
Online portal.
ECI Writes
to DoPT Again
The ECI had
written one more letter to the DoPT in April 2017 with a similar request, that
its name be removed till the ECI approves using RTI Online. He further asked
the DoPT to inform all the applicants whose applications are pending on the RTI
Online portal to file them in physical form once again.
It has to be
noted that the DoPT has not informed even a single applicant whose RTI
application is pending with the ECI, that the ECI is not accepting applications
filed through the online portal.
In fact, the
DoPT had once again written to the ECI in August 2017 reminding them that a
number of applications filed with the ECI are pending, and that the nodal
officer is not forwarding them to the relevant CPIO.
In response
to another complaint, the ECI in November 2017 has categorically stated that it
is not part of the RTI Online portal and that it is developing its own facility
for online applications.
The
Citizen Is the Ultimate Victim
In this
tussle between the ECI and the government, it is the citizen who is ultimately
suffering. Both the organisations have done precious little to help the
hundreds of applicants who have filed applications on the portal.
The ECI could
have easily accepted the existing applications while notifying on its portal
about it not being a part of RTI Online.
The DoPT on
the other hand could have informed all the applicants that the ECI is refusing
to accept such applications. With their hardened positions, neither is helping
the citizen
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