To facilitate implementation of Right to Information, the Government of Odisha has created a comprehensive web-portal to disseminate information, submit applications and monitor implementation in all departments at State, District and Block level.
Screenshot of the RTI Central Monitoring Mechanism webpage
The Right to Information Act, implemented by the Government of India in 2005, mandates timely response to citizen’s request for public information held by government agencies. In addition Section 4 of the Act specifies that “it shall be a constant endeavour of every public authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements of clause (b) of sub-section (1) to provide as much information to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information.” Therefore, the government departments are proactively disclosing information on the functions and duties of the organization, powers and responsibilities of the officers, information on PIOs and other information relevant to the citizens regularly. To ensure proper implementation, the government has made much effort and have allocated necessary resources but it continues to struggle with managing information.
To address this concern, the Government of Odisha, in 2009, introduced RTI Central Monitoring Mechanism (RTI CMM), accessible at rtiorissa.gov.in with a tag line – “you are just a click away from the government”. True to its slogan, the web portal provides a single click access to all the information on RTI including transactional services. This comprehensive web portal provides all information as per Section 4, 6, 7 and 25 of the RTI Act, 2005, in a uniform manner. The idea for the portal was conceived during a state level meeting held, under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, to discuss the implementation of RTI Act. On basis of the meetings, study tours and research was conducted to understand the existing needs and gaps, and to develop a valuable solution. The result was RTI central Monitoring Mechanism that “aimed to track the progress of the RTI implementation throughout the State in a single network.”
Since its launch in 2009, the RTI CMM is linked with 4000 out of estimated 4500 public authorities that fall under the purview of the Act. The central monitoring mechanism has been proved to be instrumental in streamlining availability and access to information. Public authorities are updating proactive disclosure through Web Content Management System, and are maintaining RTI registers through the e-filling.
This case study was published in March 2012.
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