SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL
Guinness Record Holder & RTI Activist
Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) deserves all appreciation for its launching RTI-online for e-filing RTI petitions. However this service will have practical limitation because of public-authorities being in very large numbers apart from government-departments and ministries. System should be formulated whereby there may be sub-options for undertakings after main options of departments and ministries respectively controlling these undertakings.
But more practical approach is to extend system of designated post-offices to receive post-free RTI petitions to all post-offices in the country. Every post-office however small it may be, is attached to a big post-office where all postal-articles for registered and Speed Post mail are forwarded by the small post-offices. RTI-petitions received at small post-offices can also be forwarded to big post-offices in the same bag.
DoPT should also take up matter of issuing RTI-stamps or numbered RTI-coupons as the simplest mode of paying RTI fees and copying charges. It will not only save RTI-petitioners of cumbersome use of postal-orders for the payment mode, but also save largely on handling-cost of postal orders which was rupees 22.71 as estimated for the year 2005-06.
