VIJAYAWADA: State information commissioner (SIC) P Vijaya Babu has said that though the government is laying stress on e-governance for transparency and accountability, it has failed to upgrade the state-owned websites. “How can people be assured of good e-governance in such a situation?” he has questioned .
Addressing a news conference at the State Guest House here on Sunday, he said that out of 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh, three district administrations did not have websites, six others did not have any RTI link in their sites and the websites of the four districts were not providing any information despite having RTI links.
“Under Section 5 (1) of the RTI Act, it is mandatory to give information to an applicant within 120 days, otherwise strict action has to be taken against the official concerned. Surprisingly, many higher officials do not care about this though they are liable to be fined amounts ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs.2 lakh,” Babu said.
Eventhough the RTI Act came into existence nine years ago, it was yet to be effectively implemented, he said and cited as an example the case of Guntur district DRO K Naga Babu, against whom 78 charges had been registered over the past six years but no action had been taken by the government till now.
Vijaya Babu requested the government to upgrade all the official websites and make it compulsory for all the officials to provide accurate information to the people.