Freedom of Expression under article 19 (1) (a) is one of the important fundamental rights which has been interpreted as impliedly guaranteeing citizens to seek for informations from the government. Democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed. Thus Government of India enacted the Right To Information Act with a view to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.
TIC Online facilitates online filing of RTI Complaint and Appeal with the TIC that has institutionalized the convergence of ICT with the Right to Information Act, 2005.
The established provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 regards for a practical regime wherein the citizens can have secure access to information, which have been under the control of Public Authorities (PA) so as to promote transparency and accountability in the matters concerning with and working of the Public Authorities, Tripura Information Commission and State Information Commissions.
The project “TIC Online” a key initiative driven by Tripura Information Commission (TIC) and National Informatics Centre (NIC), the premier ICT Organisation of the Government of India under the aegis of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), was sought to acquire the key benefits of ICT and deliver the RTI system over the digital network for the citizens.
The project stakeholders include representations from:
- The Government of India: The Government establishments includes representation from all central government offices viz; Tripura Information Commission, Public Authorities under the central government, Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs), Appellate Authorities and National Informatics Centre (NIC).
- Citizens of India: All citizens of the country including the Non-Resident Indians.
This Portal acts as a media for a common man who is seeking information from government some department. Present gateway helps the citizen in filing their complaint and second appeal, saving copies of draft complaint/appeal for further review and submission and tracking of status of a case among others.
TIC Online has embedded into it a 12 stage workflow that indicates the status of Appeals/Complaints at various levels of treatment beginning from the “Registering” the same to “ Consigning the File to the Record Room”. The module is being used for processing all the appeals/complaints filed before the Tripura Information Commission. The module also acts as a single source of information for all Complaints and Second Appeals.
In purview of the regime and the obligation, a team with members from Tripura Information Commission (TIC, New Delhi, India) and National Informatics Centre (NIC, New Delhi, India) grouped, analyzed the challenges to realize the potential and concurred to a robust IDDI framework comprised of four different phases
i.e. Identify, Design, Develop, Implement to achieve the goal. For details you may visit the page IDDI Framework