Depts fail to start online RTI facility

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, August 12

While the UT Administration had launched an online procedure for seeking information under the RTI Act in 2017, several departments have failed to provide the applicants with the facility till now.

The online service was launched on the directions of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) for making the dissemination of information easier and paperless. However, a few departments of the UT have still not adopted the online system and continue to work offline.

RK Garg, RTI activist, in a letter to the Adviser to the UT Administrator, has raised the issue and demanded effective implementation of the CIC orders.

He said the Forest Department, Police Department, Municipal Corporation, Education Department, Urban planning, Housing Board and societies such as CREST and STEPS have failed to implement the system.

He said the staff of these departments was still working in the offline mode and applicants were asked to pay for various charges in cash. They are providing the applicants with information manually. This results in the wastage of time and public money on postage. A lot of time is wasted when applicants visit the offices concerned.

He stated that several departments have also failed to put up a list of the Central Public Information Officer on their website, unlike the Central Government offices. He said despite CIC directions in this regard, transparency officers have not been appointed in many offices under Section 4 of the RTI Act.