Can technology be used for filing RTI application?

MUMBAI, INDIA: The Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC) in an ambitious bid to facilitate the use of technology in filing Right to Information (RTI) application, initiated an open discussion with local people and IT experts here on Thursday.

IMC’s Technology of Security Committee (TSC) and Transparency of Government Committee (TGC) have jointly instigated this idea to experiment with technology to ease and facilitate people in the process of filing RTI applications.

The idea is to allow people to use various technological forms such as Internet, website, email, SMS, mobile phone and even video.

“We would want the state to use technology to make filings easier for people, so that more and more people would file applications, a right they enjoy under the RTI Act. We want technology to be used so that people who could never file an RTI applications, can now do so,” said TSC’s chairman and IT expert, Vijay Mukhi.

Interestingly, he pointed that in today’s time, the “T” in RTI stands for technology and said that today’s young generation prefers to email or SMS rather than write, so with the option of mobile, more number of youth would make use of the the RTI Act.

TGC’s chairman Anand Desai commented, “The RTI Act has brought in a momentous change in people’s psychology about seeking information. Using technology in form of predefined formats on website via Internet can allow people to the file application and also allow them to track their application.”

Though the idea appears innovative and advanced, it’s full of complexities and contentious in terms of execution and implementation.

According to Infrasoft Technologies’ managing director Hanuman Tripathi, filing application over mobile via SMS would be difficult for rural people as language and the content length can be a major issue here. However, he suggested that SMS could be used for sending alerts message about the application status.

“Same way, sending a video file application can lead to issues of retrieval, storage and bandwidth. Instead, using the video conferencing method is the better option here, which was pioneered by the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and then was massively used and implemented by other states,” explained Tripathi.

However, this would require all the state and semi-government departments to be interlinked on the back end using Virtual Private Network (VPN) with core information management systems. Further, the government will need to digitize all its paper documents and centrally archive it for better and quicker access to information.

Moreover, dealing with people’s authentication and identity would be difficult, there’s fear of act's misuse for frivolous purposes. The lack of IT infrastructure including computers, Internet connectivity and networks across government departments remains some of the major obstacles in the move towards embracing technology on this front.

Interestingly, Softcell Technologies' director Harish Aiyer gave the example of US , where each of the governments of states and counties have documented records and information in digitized form.

However he said, “All these digitization works were outsourced to many Indian IT companies after 2000 onwards. So in India, converting all government documents and data of past 50-60 years will certainly take time.”

Overall, the meet was successful in discussing out pros and cons of using technology in filing RTI application. IMC hoped and expected that experimenting with technology could be done in the State of Maharashtra on a pilot basis and then replicated in other states.

So do you think that the India has reached that level of maturity in terms of using technology in people's day-to-day life or still it needs more time to prepare itself before walking the path of technology?