Thursday, 15 January 2015

All Public Authorities must display RTI appeals and replies on their websites



Ministries to put up RTI replies online from Oct 31

NEW DELHI: Taking transparency to another level, the government on Tuesday directed all its ministries and departments to suo motu display RTI applications and responses thereof, on their respective websites from October 31.

However, the DoPT instructions in this regard do leave scope for withholding RTI replies that contain personal information relating to an individual. "It may be noted that RTI applications and appeals received and their responses relating to the personal information of an individual may not be disclosed if they do not serve any public interest," said the DoPT note circulated to all Union ministries and departments on Tuesday.

To facilitate uploading of RTI applications and appeals received and their responses on the website, a new feature has been added to the CPIO/FAA module on the 'RTI Online' portal on pilot basis for DoPT. Through this feature, an option is given to the central public information officers (CPIO) and first appellate authority (FAA) to upload the reply to RTI query and the first appeal respectively on to the department's website. This particular feature will now be extended to other ministries and departments as well. To display the RTI applications received in the ministry/department and the reply given using this feature, web services will be provided through a URL to each ministry or department by NIC or DoPT.
"The concerned ministry/department needs to consume this web service (by writing a program) to display the desired contest on its respective website," the DoPT note said while asking the ministries and departments to take the help of NIC or DoPT experts in this regard.

"An immediate action is requested so that the facility to upload the reply to RTI application and first appeal respectively on the website of the respective ministry/department may be started with effect from October 31, 2014," directed the DoPT. 
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Source: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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