Claim: NDA Government launched the RTI online portal for 24/7 filing of RTI applications.
Fact: An Office Memorandum released in April 2013 clearly mentions the launch of online portal to file RTI and it was during the UPA government. The claim made by the minister ishence FALSE.
The Minister of State in the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), Dr. Jitendra Singh on 19 July, 2019, during the introduction of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019, spoke at length about the NDA government’s achievements and initiatives for RTI. He made multiple claims while introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha. Similar claims were tweeted by the BJP later. In this story, we look at three specific claims made by the minister.
The amendment is now passed by both the houses
On 19 July 2019, the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the government. The Bill, which was later passed on Monday, 22 July, had proposals which gave powers to the Central Government to fix salaries and tenures as well as set the service conditions for the Information Commissioners at both the Central and State level. This sparked a debate in both the houses of parliament since a majority of the opposition were against the bill stating that the bill was not sent for parliamentary scrutiny and that it lacked legislative competence. The bill was also referred to as the RTI ‘Elimination’ bill by the opposition.
During the debate, Dr. Jitendra Singh, made a few claims regarding the role of the NDA Government in upholding the objective of the Right To Information Act of 2005 that was formulated to empower citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the functioning of the government, contain corruption and make democracy work for the people in the real sense.
When was the RTI Online portal launched?
One of the claims made by the minister is that the NDA government launched the RTI online portal to ensure that citizens can file RTIs 24 hours a day instead of it being a 10am to 5pm affair.
In order to substantiate his point stating that the NDA government has always been working towards the refinement of the act, the minister said that it was the Modi-led NDA government that introduced the online web portal for RTI. But an office memorandum (OM) dated 22 April, 2013released by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had details regarding the launch of the online portal for RTI along with its link.
In this OM, it has been clearly stated that ‘a Web Portal namely RTI Online with url https://rtionline.gov.in has been launched. This portal, developed by NIC, is a facility for the Indian Citizens to online file RTI applications and first appeals and also to make online payment of RTI fees…’ It has also been mentioned that the facility was then available only for the Department of Personnel Training and had details regarding the plans to extend the same to other ministries.
When this memorandum was released on 22 April, 2013, the then Minister of State of the department was V. Narayanaswamy. The UPA government was in power in the year 2013.
Also, in the press release made on 17 March 2017, we can see that the Secretary, DoPT, B P Sharma mentioned that the RTI Online Portal was launched in August 2013. The Union Minister had mentioned that the government was persuading more states and departments to adopt this. The Secretary, DoPT, further added that as on 1 April, 2016, only 477 Public Authorities (PAs) were aligned with the portal. An additional 1,363 more PAs aligned with the same by 17 March, 2017. Further, 198 PAs under the Delhi Government also adopted the portal. Plans to include PAs from Puducherry and Chandigarh by the end of April 2017 have also been mentioned in the press release. From this, we can infer that the NDA Government did take initiatives to include more PAs in the portal. But, to say that the NDA government launched the portal is not true.
India
United States of America
New Zealand