Deccan
Chronicle: Kerala: Monday, September 16, 2019.
With
Rajasthan government launching the first ever suo motu public platform 'Jan
Soochna Portal (JSP)-2019' providing information about government authorities
and departments, the RTI activists in Kerala have urged the Kerala government
to follow Rajasthan way to launch a similar one.
It
was on Friday Rajasthan government came up with the portal in collaboration
with civil society and public departments. The first such portal in the country
is launched in compliance with Section 4 of the RTI act that mandates for suo
motu disclosure of government information rather than manual filing of official
application by information seekers.
It
also comes a decade after the Second Administrative Reform commission headed by
M. Veerapa Moily in its report in 2007 recommended that the RTI Act would as
such be effective only when local governments implement section IV of the Act
in letter and spirit.
D.B.
Binu, president, RTI Kerala Federation, who moved a petition in High Court in
April this year seeking implementation of section IV of RTI Act, says that no
government website at present provides proper address with pin code. "Even district collectors do not know
schemes and committees and how many committees they chair. No such information
is available with the district administration websites as well. Based on our
petition, the court has sought affidavit from the government."
A
Rajasthan-like portal will be of great use to people of Kerala, who even
otherwise make use of the law, Mr Binu said. "It will also help reduce
corruption in government departments and ensure transparency and accountability
of the administration."
The
Rajasthan government has also set up information kiosks in villages and towns
to help people gather government information.
"Once
the government starts providing information in suo motu, one need not spend
application fee and postal charges to get information," Mr Binu said.
"It will also help save time of officials in collecting information and
posting it since most of applications are repetitive."