SIC plans to acquire technology to help RTI appellants track petitions

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

State information Commission is planning to have GSM modems to help petitioners track their petitions besides installing servers in its vicinity next month to directly upload the commission’s orders, according to Information Commissioner K S Sripathi.

State Information Commissioner K S Sripathi told Express on the sidelines of the conference Food for Thought on Right (way) to information organized by Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry, that the servers are expected to be installed within a few days or may be a couple of weeks. “Everything is ready. Only the server has to be plugged and the software installed,” he said.

The server will reduce the burden of the commission which is manually typing the orders before uploading it through a dial up connection.

He said the server will also help in ensuring that there are no typos in the orders when it is uploaded. “Now the orders could be directly converted into a electronic file, approved and signed before being uploaded. We have also ensured security so that only authorized persons can only operate the server,” he added.

Sripathi also said that the commission is planning to have GSM modem through which the right to information (RTI) petitions could be tracked by the appellant. “As and when the petition is received, it will be numbered and enterd in a system. The petitioner then can go to a kiosk and can then track his file by entering the number,” the information commissioner said.

He said the GSM modem is not too expensive and the nitty-gritties on the cost are being worked out. Earlier during the conference, Advocate N L Raja, who is the board member of Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group stressed the need to cut down on percentage of frivolous RTI queries besides the need to create RTI awareness among the public information officers