‘Indian Citizens living abroad’ to pay RTI fees via ePost

Dept of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has positively responded to a scheme suggested by the Dept of Posts (DOP) that the payment gate of its ‘ePost’ service can be used to accept the mandatory Rs 10 from overseas.

 

“Indians living abroad find it difficult to pay Rs 10 to file an RTI. The amount is small and the overseas Indians have to rely on the friends and relatives in India to pay the fees. I faced the difficulty, when I was visiting another country and wanted to file an RTI,” says Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd.), a Social & RTI Activist, who took up the initiative.

 

Under the scheme, an Indian residing abroad can purchase electronic Indian Postal Orders by logging on to the ePO portal. The money can be transferred electronically from ePO to the concerned Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO). The CPIO can verify the IPO number by logging on to the ePO portal.

 

DOP had also give another option of physical Indian Postal Orders that could be purchased by Indian missions abroad and then sold to Indian citizens abroad for the purpose of RTI application. It was rejected by DoPT as the electronic payment proposal scheme will bring down the costs and expenditure, which is currently an expectation from all departments.