MCD's online RTI project a hit with users

Right from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat to as far as Kerala, the MCD's IT department is buzzing with online applications.

Right from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat to as far as Kerala, the MCD's IT department is buzzing with online applications. Within 20 days of its starting, the civic agency has received close to 400 online applications under the Right to Information (RTI).

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A number of these have been filed by applicants who are not from Delhi. The civic agency has already started updating the status of number of applications.

The applications being received by the civic agency are related to building plan sanctioning, proposals made by the civic agency, its implementation, and about MCD policies.

Last month, the civic agency started receiving online application under the RTI and has been responding to them online too. The software for the application has been developed by the IT department of MCD and to file an RTI, one has to access MCD's website.

To ensure all the replies are provided within the stipulated period of 30 days, the MCD has also created a help desk wherein all the public information officers (PIOs) who are supposed to furnish the information to the applicants are reminded by the staff to provide the information on time.

"Everyday our help desk calls up the concerned officer who is supposed to furnish the information to send it to us. Once we receive the reply we update it online so that it can be viewed by the applicant. Our main task is to ensure that people don't need to stand in long queues rather they can simply file it from their homes too," said a senior MCD official.

Under the online application form, applicants can check the status of their application by feeding the application number on the website. "The application form has name of the concerned PIO, applicant name, address, telephone number, mobile number, fax number, email ID, application category, application fee and question box," added the official.

For making payment one can use a credit card.

Officials said that a number of applications received through RTI have asked details about the software for the online application created by MCD's IT department.