Quick to take digital route, Punjab has no option for filing RTI queries online

The RTI activists are miffed over filing the applications through registered post, and in some cases approaching the departments in person, at a time when a pandemic has been for over a year now.

Punjab, which boasts of being the first to roll out e-office facility and which is also working on to have paperless proceedings in Vidhan Sabha, has, in a stark contrast, not made available filing of Right To Information (RTI) Act applications online.

The RTI activists are miffed over filing the applications through registered post, and in some cases approaching the departments in person, at a time when a pandemic has been for over a year now.

Nawanshahr based RTI activist Parvinder Singh Kittna told The Indian Express that 80 to 90 per cent of the RTI applications are being submitted through registered post where the applicant needs to attach Rs 10 Indian Postal Order (IPO) with each application. “Most of the time, there is scarcity of IPOs in post offices. In many cases, the applicant has to travel as much as 10 kilometers only to realize that IPOs are not available,” Kittna said.

Kittna added, “There have been instances when the applicant goes to a particular department with queries under RTI, but is told that officials, like diary clerk, is on leave. Also, the officials pick up a dispute and threaten the applicant of action for misbehaving with a government servant on duty.”

“The RTI application process should be made available online in Punjab on the lines of central government departments, which offer the facility,” he added.

Another leading RTI activist, wishing not to be named, said, “Not only the filing of RTI application should be made online in Punjab, but the queries and the replies should be uploaded. On one side, we talk of digital India and paperless Vidhan Sabha in Punjab, on the other hand RTI Act applications are not accepted online.”

Ludhiana-based RTI activist Kuldeep Singh Khaira concurs. “Amid this pandemic, it is risky to go in person to file an RTI application. The government should make it available online. Every applicant has a bank account, so online payment would not be an issue. If neighboring Haryana and Chandigarh can make available such the facility, I wonder why Punjab has not done so,” asked Khaira.

Punjab Chief Information Commissioner Suresh Arora, said, “Department of Governance Reforms is in the process of developing (means for) online submission of RTI applications in collaboration with the Commission. Two demos have already been held in that regard. I am hopeful by the end of this month it would be launched.”

Source: Read Full Article