A website with the domain, rti.kerala.gov.in, that looked like it’s managed by the Kerala government, displayed the message, “This site is currently under maintenance. We should be back shortly.”
By 2020, Kerala wants to be a fully ‘digitally-literate’ state in India. An ambitious policy framework, envisaged by the previous Congress-led government, involved several key objectives such as making digital infrastructure of the government accessible to the public and sustaining economic growth through digital knowledge initiatives. The present Left government has continued on that path by launching a unified governance app called ‘m-Kerala’ and making efforts to turn government schools digital.
However, sadly, Kerala still does not have an online facility through which the public can file Right to Information (RTI) applications. Only a few states in India such as Maharashtra and Odisha have set up portals to accept RTI inquiries apart from the nodal website that takes in queries regarding departments and ministeries under the central government. Since 2005, when the RTI came into effect, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Centre has sent circulars to state governments to set up individual portals to accept RTI queries.
A website with the domain, rti.kerala.gov.in, that looked like it’s managed by the Kerala government, displayed the message, “This site is currently under maintenance. We should be back shortly.”
Indianexpress.com spoke with at least 10 officials of general administration, information and public relations and the state information commission to inquire whether the website belonged to the government and if yes, why it was down. Not a single official could say who managed the website.
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