ALAPPUZHA: With Rajasthan government launching the first ever suo motu public platform 'Jan Soochna Portal (JSP)-2019' providing information about government authorities and departments, the RTI activists in Kerala have urged the Kerala government to follow Rajasthan way to launch a similar one.
It was on Friday Rajasthan government came up with the portal in collaboration with civil society and public departments. The first such portal in the country is launched in compliance with Section 4 of the RTI act that mandates for suo motu disclosure of government information rather than manual filing of official application by information seekers.
It also comes a decade after the Second Administrative Reform commission headed by M. Veerapa Moily in its report in 2007 recommended that the RTI Act would as such be effective only when local governments implement section IV of the Act in letter and spirit.
D.B. Binu, president, RTI Kerala Federation, who moved a petition in High Court in April this year seeking implementation of section IV of RTI Act, says that no government website at present provides proper address with pin code. "Even district collectors do not know schemes and committees and how many committees they chair. No such information is available with the district administration websites as well. Based on our petition, the court has sought affidavit from the government."
A Rajasthan-like portal will be of great use to people of Kerala, who even otherwise make use of the law, Mr Binu said. "It will also help reduce corruption in government departments and ensure transparency and accountability of the administration."
The Rajasthan government has also set up information kiosks in villages and towns to help people gather government information.
"Once the government starts providing information in suo motu, one need not spend application fee and postal charges to get information," Mr Binu said. "It will also help save time of officials in collecting information and posting it since most of applications are repetitive."
