The Centre will fund the States up to Rs 3 lakh for celebration of RTI Week next month and Rs 4 lakh for innovative awareness generation programme through street plays and folk troupes besides setting up facilities for online filing of applications under the RTI Act.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in its latest circular announced that Rs 4 lakh per year will also be provided to the States to set up helpline for answering queries of the general public regarding the RTI Act in their respective regional language. The RTI Act, 2005, empowers the citizen to seek time bound response from a Government department on governance matters. The RTI week is celebrated across the country between October 5-12.
The facility of filing RTI applications and appeals online through RTI online web portal has been launched and is being implemented in all the ministries or departments of Central Government located in the Capital. The same facility may be extended to the state government offices by sharing with them the software developed by NIC (Headquarters)
“Funds would be granted to Administrative Training Institu-tes based on their respective proposal subject to a maximum ceiling of Rs 4 lakh per annum in the first year which would include rental charges for a telephone line, computer system for data storage, salary for the person manning the helpline and stationery, etc,” the DoPT said.