ETV Bharat: Srinagar: Saturday,
23 November 2024.
The portal will give an easy and convenient way to file applications to extract information from the government.
The Jammu and Kashmir
government will soon launch a Right to Information portal for an easy and
convenient way to file applications to extract information from the government.
Several activists and common people have hailed that decision, calling it “too late but a welcome one.”
The portal has been created by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) JK and is in testing mode. “The NIC has already completed the customisation of the portal for the government, aligning it with the features and structure of the RTI portals of Karnataka and Ladakh,” sources told ETV Bharat. “The portal will be launched soon,” they said.
According to officials, the NIC conducted a capacity-building session in August this year for all the nodal officers of the RTI portal from various government departments.
“The nodal officers have now been successfully onboarded onto the RTI, J&K portal. These officials were trained and will act as master trainers responsible for training and capacity building of CPIOs in their departments,” they said.
An officer who attended the training session said that the portal has convenient features and the applicant can file an RTI with his smartphone or on the laptop.
Sources said that the site of the portal, as of now, has restricted access to NIC and shall be made live in the public domain shortly after its formal launch.
RTI activists of J&K have welcomed the decision of the government to launch an RTI portal. “The creation of the portal was our demand for a long time. The portal will save us time as we can file applications from home or on our smartphones. Applicants had to physically go to the offices to drop an application or send it through posts,” RTI activist MM Shuja told ETV Bharat.
Naveed Bukhtiyar, a young lawyer and RTI activist, said that it was a welcome step from the government but taken too late.
“The RTI online portal will enable us to track the status of applications, which otherwise was hectic in offline and physical mode. Though the official delay to reply to an RTI won’t be expedited by an online portal,” Bukhtiyar told ETV Bharat.
Before the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir into a union territory, the erstwhile state had its own RTI Act, but that act was scrapped as the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution was abolished and replaced with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2020.
The Central Information Commission, New Delhi, had in June 2020 asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to have an RTI portal to facilitate the general public to file online RTI applications and first appeals.
The Department of Personnel, Government of India, had initially suggested that the applicants from Jammu and Kashmir could have a section of the RTI Online Portal of the Government of India. “Later, the GoI directed to roll out a separate online portal after it was assessed that the number of existing public authorities, viz., administrative departments and subordinate offices of the UT of J&K, is large,” officials said.
The portal will give an easy and convenient way to file applications to extract information from the government.
Several activists and common people have hailed that decision, calling it “too late but a welcome one.”
The portal has been created by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) JK and is in testing mode. “The NIC has already completed the customisation of the portal for the government, aligning it with the features and structure of the RTI portals of Karnataka and Ladakh,” sources told ETV Bharat. “The portal will be launched soon,” they said.
According to officials, the NIC conducted a capacity-building session in August this year for all the nodal officers of the RTI portal from various government departments.
“The nodal officers have now been successfully onboarded onto the RTI, J&K portal. These officials were trained and will act as master trainers responsible for training and capacity building of CPIOs in their departments,” they said.
An officer who attended the training session said that the portal has convenient features and the applicant can file an RTI with his smartphone or on the laptop.
Sources said that the site of the portal, as of now, has restricted access to NIC and shall be made live in the public domain shortly after its formal launch.
RTI activists of J&K have welcomed the decision of the government to launch an RTI portal. “The creation of the portal was our demand for a long time. The portal will save us time as we can file applications from home or on our smartphones. Applicants had to physically go to the offices to drop an application or send it through posts,” RTI activist MM Shuja told ETV Bharat.
Naveed Bukhtiyar, a young lawyer and RTI activist, said that it was a welcome step from the government but taken too late.
“The RTI online portal will enable us to track the status of applications, which otherwise was hectic in offline and physical mode. Though the official delay to reply to an RTI won’t be expedited by an online portal,” Bukhtiyar told ETV Bharat.
Before the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir into a union territory, the erstwhile state had its own RTI Act, but that act was scrapped as the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution was abolished and replaced with the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2020.
The Central Information Commission, New Delhi, had in June 2020 asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to have an RTI portal to facilitate the general public to file online RTI applications and first appeals.
The Department of Personnel, Government of India, had initially suggested that the applicants from Jammu and Kashmir could have a section of the RTI Online Portal of the Government of India. “Later, the GoI directed to roll out a separate online portal after it was assessed that the number of existing public authorities, viz., administrative departments and subordinate offices of the UT of J&K, is large,” officials said.
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