The
Indian Express: Kerala: Tuesday, December 04, 2018.
A
website with the domain, rti.kerala.gov.in, that looked like it's managed by
the Kerala government, displayed the message, "This site is currently
under maintenance. We should be back shortly."
By
2020, Kerala wants to be a fully ‘digitally-literate’ state in India. An
ambitious policy framework, envisaged by the previous Congress-led government,
involved several key objectives such as making digital infrastructure of the
government accessible to the public and sustaining economic growth through
digital knowledge initiatives. The present Left government has continued on
that path by launching a unified governance app called ‘m-Kerala’ and making
efforts to turn government schools digital.
However,
sadly, Kerala still does not have an online facility through which the public
can file Right to Information (RTI) applications. Only a few states in India
such as Maharashtra and Odisha have set up portals to accept RTI inquiries
apart from the nodal website that takes in queries regarding departments and
ministeries under the central government. Since 2005, when the RTI came into
effect, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Centre has sent
circulars to state governments to set up individual portals to accept RTI
queries.
A
website with the domain, rti.kerala.gov.in, that looked like it’s managed by
the Kerala government, displayed the message, “This site is currently under
maintenance. We should be back shortly.”
Indianexpress.com
spoke with at least 10 officials of general administration, information and
public relations and the state information commission to inquire whether the
website belonged to the government and if yes, why it was down. Not a single
official could say who managed the website.
An
official, who did not want to be named, posed a guess, “Maybe the website is
not live yet, which is why it’s showing the error message. The main website of
the Kerala government is being revised and works are in progress. Maybe it will
go live along with the main website.”
Currently,
the closest to a digital version of RTI is a recently-introduced system by the
State Information Commission (SIC) through which, according to a November 26
order, complaints are received through e-mail where they are subsequently filed
and recorded. According to Section 19 (3) of the RTI Act, the complainant can
go for a second appeal through the state/central information commission.
What
farmers at the protest march in Delhi are demanding from the Narendra Modi
government
“People
don’t know about this. It should have been issued through a newspaper. It’s all
kept secret somehow,” DB Binu, a prominent RTI activist-lawyer, said.
“The
fact is that 13 years after RTI came in, Kerala still runs a primitive method
of RTI implementation. On some government websites, you can still see the photo
of the former chief minister. There’s no updation,” he added.
Dhanuraj,
another activist, said, “It’s not like Kerala can’t do it. They are purposely
choosing not to do it. I think it’s clear that they are scared of questions.”
Ironically,
the Institute of Management in Government (IMG), a Thiruvananthapuram-based training
institute of the Kerala government, offers 10-day free online courses to
educate the public about the RTI Act and the ways in which one could file an
application to scour for information from the government. An IMG official said
the course, which has nine modules, has been designed for laymen and has no
eligibility criteria. It is conducted up to 12 times in a year and involves
examinations. At the successful completion of the course, a participant
receives a certificate.
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