Study of E-Governance in Flourishing Right to Information Act in India
Abstract :
India is transforming into
a transparent society. It is very much necessary that the Government functions
which are related to public or are interfaced with public should be done by
using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to increase the level
of transparency. These technologies should be implemented in a manner that they
are easily accessible by the citizens and they should be citizen friendly. India
has core competence in information technology so by properly managing
e-commerce and e-business leading to e-Governance, transparency in
administration of Government activities and administration is definitely
possible.
The Right to Information Act is one of the rarest laws which enforce the implementation of e-Governance. Quoting the provision of the Act: “Every public authority shall … ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerized are within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated. Public and judicial activism can progressively increase the interpretation of all records that are appropriate to be computerized.”
The paper aims at studying e-governance and its proper implementation in flourishing RTI Act in India. The paper gives a brief understanding about e-governance and other co-related terms like e-government and governance. It also describes the difference between them as often they are used instead of each other. We also try to understand the RTI Act and section 4 of RTI Act, 2005 which emphasizes on enforcement of e-Governance. Examples are given on how e-Governance has helped in proper implementation of RTI Act like Online RTI Application Centre, Centre Information Commission online, Bihar Jaankari, etc. We have also come up with a model which describes the flow in which an online application system should be developed.
Key words: - E-governance, Right to Information, RTI, Development, Transparency, Accountability