Now, a new way to block online RTI queries

Two years after launching the online Right to Information (RTI) platform to enable easy access, the government has thrown a spanner in the works by coming up with an absurd logic to block the applications, stating that the queries will not be transferred to departments which have not been onboarded yet to the platform.

Section 6(3) of the RTI Act has laid out the procedure for a public authority that receives an application for information pertaining to another authority/department: Such applications should be transferred to the appropriate department within five days and the applicant has to be informed
immediately.

Violating this clear direction is the government’s latest decision not to transfer files to departments that have not yet been onboarded (integrated) to the RTI platform.

A message displayed on the portal reads: “If (a) public authority is still not on-boarded on this portal, then, the application would be returned back to you as the Nodal officer would not be able to transfer the request to the public authority using this portal. Also, the amount paid by you on this portal towards the application would not be refunded in such scenarios.”

Temporary measure

To a question, an official said the message was a temporary measure. “Once all the departments are integrated, the gaps will be bridged,” the official added.

However, a senior official who guided the implementation of the RTI platform said the message was in clear violation of the RTI Act.

“It has been two years since we launched the platform. If all departments are not on board, then it is the fault of the government. They can’t make the public suffer for the delay, which reflects on the inefficiency in administration,” he noted.

This comes at a time when officials have been finding it difficult to bring all the departments to the online platform. Over the last two years, the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) has faced resistance while trying to onboard several departments and public
authorities.

“In several departments, we saw outright reservation being expressed by the officials to adopt the online system. The real problem is with the many departments which have come on board but don’t execute the functions due to the change of nodal officer handling the RTI requests. Training them has become a full-time job,” an official in the KIC said.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: