New portal on RTI launched in India
Citizen groups of a north Indian city have launched an interactive online portal on the Right to Information Act that allows visitors to share and disseminate information of public interest. The website includes a special section for youth to address their concerns.
Chandigarh: If you want information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, just visit a new web portal to find out how. The site has been set up โ not by the government โ but by people and groups in Chandigarh who want to spread awareness about this right.
- Chandigarh citizens voice launches national level RTI web portal/ Photo credit: Mera Chandigarh
The interactive online web portal โ www.rightto.info -- has come up thanks to the RTI Users Association which aims to form a strong network of RTI users across the country.
"We have constituted this forum so that RTI users from all over the country can exchange their knowledge and findings and interact among each other. This organisation will provide them an easy platform to run and support various activities that are of larger public interest," Coordinator of the association Hemant Goswamy said.
He said the organisation, which is an initiative of likeminded people, is still in the nascent stage and will take some time to have a proper organisational structure in all the states.
"However, we have initiated our activities from Punjab and Haryana," he said.
Goswamy said any individual who is using the RTI could join them and upload his information on their website, which anyone can access. It also has a special section for youth to solve their queries and apprehensions regarding the RTI Act.
"We will also organise various activities, seminars, debates and discussions touching upon the burning topics that immediately concern our society at regular intervals," Goswamy said.
"Anybody, whether he is using the RTI to highlight a corrupt and unlawful activity or for the betterment of society, can join us. We would work in the most transparent and responsible manner," he added.
"Since its enactment, hundreds of scams and anomalies have been unearthed by the use of RTI. In the last four years, all the RTI users of the region had felt a need for greater interaction and further dissemination of knowledge about this act among the public," another member of the association said.
