2000 govt organisations to accept online RTI applications

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Around 2,000 Central governmentorganisations will soon be accepting applications under theRight to Information (RTI) Act through online medium. The move is based on the suggestion given by a group ofsecretaries before Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) hasstarted a massive exercise to train nodal officers of all suchpublic authorities who have not yet started accepting the RTIpleas online. In a stern directive, it has asked all the governmentdepartments to attend a workshop being organised by the DoPTin this regard "without fail". In case, the officers concernedfail to attend the workshop, a username will be createdsuo-motu and all these public authorities will be made live onthe RTI portal. As many as 690 public authorities have been aligned sofar on the especially designed website–www.rtionline.gov.in–to enable online filing of the RTI applications. The DoPT had during June and July this year conducted aworkshop for 330 public authorities. Of these, 51 nodalofficers did not attend the workshop. Since all the public authorities (around 2,000) willhave to be aligned in a time bound manner ( a target/timelinefixed and monitored at the highest level), DoPT is organisingyet another training workshop as a special drive for thosedefaulted public authorities and nodal officers who did notattend the workshop It requested that all nodal officers under 51 publicauthorities attend the workshop without fail on Tuesday, theDoPT said in the order. It may be noted by all concerned that no furtheropportunity would be given to the nodal officers after thisworkshop, the order said. In case the concerned nodal officer is unable to attendthis training, the username will be created suo-motu and theconcerned public authority will be made live on the RTI onlineportal with effect from September 30, by DoPT, it said. The RTI Act, 2005, enables a citizen to seek tome-boundreply on governance related matters. People can also makepayment of RTI fee online. On the occasion of completion of more than 10 years ofimplementation of the RTI Act, the Central InformationCommission is going to hold annual convention in October, theDoPT said. PTI AKVRG