India News | Operationalise Online RTI Facility in MP: Vivek Tankha to State Information Commission
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Senior Congress leader Vivek Tankha on Friday wrote to Madhya Pradesh Information Commission seeking an online facility for filing of RTI applications for residents of the state.
New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) Senior Congress leader Vivek Tankha on Friday wrote to Madhya Pradesh Information Commission seeking an online facility for filing of RTI applications for residents of the state.
“I have asked them to ensure online RTI facility at all state government departments at the earliest for transparency in governance. This must be achieved at the earliest,” he told PTI.
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In the letter, Tankha said the operationalisation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act provision has been affected in the state government offices since March 22 because of which people are unable to get the details of decisions taken by the state government and transparency adopted in its procedure.
He said the RTI Act empowers citizens to ensure transparency in the decisions taken by the state government and it is also the “right of the people”.
“I was surprised to know that the website of the state Information Commission has not been working for the past eight months due to which the people of the state could not approach you (for redressal of their grievances related to the RTI Act),” the Rajya Sabha member of Congress party said in a letter in Hindi.
Tankha said this is in violation of the RTI Act, 2005 and against the intention of Parliament that had passed the transparency law.
He asked Chief Information Commissioner Arvind Kumar Shukla to implement the facility of online filing of the RTI applications to ensure transparency in the decisions taken by the state government.
“You are requested to act without delay on this serious issue of public importance. I would like to specify that in case no action is taken immediately on this serious issue then we all RTI workers would be forced to approach the judiciary in order to safeguard the interest of the people of the state,” Tankha said.
It would also be a matter in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, he said.
Tankha said Chhattisgarh and other states have realized the importance of the online RTI facility and implemented it.
Bhopal-based RTI activist Ajay Dubey said the Centre has been asking all state governments to operationalise such online facilities for over a decade.
“Governments have come and gone but the online facility could not be implemented. We have been asking the state government to start the online RTI facility but it has not been done so far,” Dubey said.
He said the facility was proposed to start from April 1, but it could not be operationalised due to political disturbances that led to the fall of Congress-led Kamal Nath government on March 20.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)