As per the law, the Lok Sabha must frame its own rules and systems for RTI handling. Yet, the much-hyped Digital Sansad portal built to disseminate information on Lok Sabha proceedings and policy completely omits any provision for filing RTIs.Even after two decades of the RTI law, there is neither a dedicated RTI portal for Parliament nor integration with the existing central portal.Pankti Jog, Executive Secretary of Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, said, “This outdated system means citizens must still procure a Rs 10 demand draft or postal order, send it via post, or physically visit the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) at Parliament House to file a simple RTI query.”Jog said, “When the RTI helpline run by Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel dialled the Lok Sabha Secretariat, we were told the ‘Sansad RTI online portal is in the process of development’.Meanwhile, the CPIO at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs clarified that RTIs related to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha cannot be submitted online through the Central RTI portal.”“This leaves citizens stuck in a 20-year-old, time-consuming, and environmentally unfriendly process, clearly showing that even after a decade, the Prime Minister’s vision for Digital India has not been absorbed by the administration,” she said.The gap between Parliament’s digital claims and the reality of citizens’ access to information stands as a stark reminder: digitisation remains incomplete at the very heart of Indian democracy.
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