Part B RTI Act, 2005

As a part of its e-governance initiatives, the Delhi government will begin accepting online filing of RTI applications within the next 3 months. According to government sources, the online RT I project is in the pipeline along with the project to set up e-Mandis, which will also make the sale of agricultural produce more transparent.

The project will help citizens file applications seeking information pertaining to any government department, make payments online and receive replies through e-mail. Currently, RTI applications are filed in person or by post.

The online applications, sources said, will have a payment gateway similar to an e-commerce platform and payments will be enabled by credit or debit cards, or netbanking. The government is currently working on setting up the infrastructure to ensure appropriate channeling of applications to the concerned departments. A back-end set up will also have to be created to channel the RT I fees to the concerned department, said sources. In addition, the government is also training its officials to gradually shift the RTI setup to a paperless office. Sources said training of government employees will also take some time before all RT I operations become paperless. The government, however, will rope in various departments to be able to complete the process within the next three months. About the e-Mandi project, sources said it was conceptualised to regulate the prices of agricultural produce and eliminate the monopoly of some vendors. This will ensure that details of all products are online. If the sale of some product is stuck, their availability or otherwise can be seen online, said a source. The project is still nascent and will take time to be planned and executed. While both the projects have received the government’s nod, the cost involved in setting them up is still being worked out, said officials. The majority of the expenses, they said, would be on setting up the online platforms and back-end operations.