Gujarat’s much-publicised digital governance system has come under scrutiny after the State Information Commission (SIC) found that 6,659 government offices are missing from the state’s online RTI portal, making it difficult for citizens to seek information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The issue came to light during the hearing of a complaint filed by Dikshitkumar Talpada, who was trying to track the movement and records of his earlier first appeals filed under the RTI Act. While examining the matter, the commission discovered that thousands of government offices were not mapped on the online RTI system, causing applications to disappear into what the commission described as a digital “no-man’s land.”
State Information Commissioner Nikhil Bhatt observed that the problem was not caused by a technical glitch but by an administrative oversight. According to the commission, nodal officers failed to properly map the Public Information Officers (PIOs) and First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) of public authorities under their control on the portal. As a result, citizens are often unable to select the correct department from the drop-down menu while filing RTI applications online.
The commission noted that this failure forces many applicants to send their RTI requests directly to the Chief Minister’s Office or other nodal departments. This creates unnecessary delays, additional workload, confusion and harassment for citizens seeking information. The order further stated that such lapses tarnish the image of the state government and weaken transparency efforts.
The department with the highest number of missing offices is the Energy and Petrochemicals Department, where 1,172 offices have not been mapped to the RTI portal. It is followed by the Narmada, Water Resources, Water Supply and Kalpsar Department with 780 offices, and the Revenue Department with 610 offices.
Other departments with a large number of unlisted offices include:
- Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Cooperation – 532 offices
- Health and Family Welfare – 485 offices
- Roads and Buildings – 474 offices
- Panchayat, Rural Housing and Rural Development – 454 offices
- Labour, Skill Development and Employment – 393 offices
- Home Department – 361 offices
- Finance Department – 233 offices
During the hearing, it was revealed that while Gujarat promotes its e-Sarkar (electronic governance) model, the backend integration between departments and the RTI portal remains incomplete. This gap has left thousands of offices effectively invisible on the digital platform.
Rejecting technical excuses, the State Information Commission has issued a 90-day deadline to all nodal officers to complete the mapping of every office under their jurisdiction on the RTI portal.
To improve the system, the commission has recommended the use of modern AI-based tools and an advanced search feature that would help track applicant history and reduce duplicate queries. It has also suggested enabling a facility through which a single RTI application can be forwarded to multiple Public Information Officers when necessary.
The commission has further directed nodal officers to conduct monthly reviews to ensure that no government office remains outside the online RTI network in the future. The objective, it said, is to make the RTI process more transparent, efficient and citizen-friendly.
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