Reality check: Karnataka's RTI portal takes transparency for a ride

It was exactly a year ago that Karnataka launched an online service for citizens to file Right to Information (RTI) applications. The portal, however, is so glitched that the State Information Commission (SIC) has repeatedly asked the government to fix the problems.

But, the Centre for e-Governance (CeG) appears to have turned a blind eye. None of the RTI applications filed by DH has elicited any response.

In the first week of January, several RTI applications were filed by DH at rtionline.karnataka.gov.in to assess the utility of the website launched with much fanfare in February 2020.

One of the RTI applications was filed on January 3 with the Revenue Department, to which the portal acknowledged receipt of the query. However, no additional information such as contact details of the nodal officer concerned, was provided. More than a month since the application, there is s no update on whether the query was approved or rejected.

Similarly, there was a lack response from departments to a few other RTI applications filed. It can be noted that only a handful of Secretariat offices are 'empanelled' to accept RTI applications online. Three-fourth of the Secretariat offices are yet to be empanelled according to the State Information Commission.

Documents show that the CeG did not act on multiple letters by the SIC to address the problems faced by the portal. SIC authorities had also pulled up CeG for misleading the public in the RTI online portal as the website claimed — contents of the site provided by the Karnataka Information Commission, Government of Karnataka. The Commission wrote to the CeG in November last to remove the text from the webpage, documents show.

RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak said that though Karnataka is recognised as a better-governed state, it has not been effective in implementing online RTI services as in Maharashtra and Delhi. "It is extremely unfortunate that adequate seriousness is not shown at various government levels, despite Supreme Court directions (on providing RTI services online)," he said.

According to Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary (e-Governance), the website would be set right in a month or two. “This portal was implemented because of a Supreme Court directive. The software was borrowed from NIC Delhi as they had given it to everybody. But, there were issues with support from NIC. About a week ago, NIC Karnataka took the source code. It will be set right in a month or two," he said. Also, we had implemented the portal only in a couple of departments because we wanted to scale up slowly, he added.