Municipal Corporation of Delhi has arguably become the first department in the country to receive online RTI applications. Started recently, the civic body has already received over 40 applications till now.

Developed by the IT department of MCD, one has to visit the website www.mcdonline.gov.in to avail this facility.  This comes at a time when MCD officials have been slapped with maximum penalty by CIC and pulled up for failing to carry out its functions under the Right to Information Act 2005.

"Our aim is to bring in more transparency and make available our services to the citizens at their door steps. That is why we developed this website so that people can send in their queries sitting in their living room and without toiling in long queues," MCD Commissioner K S Mehra said.

"The facility was started on June 24 and we have already received 40 applications till now," he said. Some of the salient features of the MCD online application form for information under RTI include department name, PIO name, applicant name,

address, telephone number, mobile number, fax number, email ID, application category, application fee and question box among others. .

One can make payment for the application fee by credit cards. "Once an applicant files his query online, he gets an SMS alert confirming that his application has been received by us. He gets an ID number which he can use to check the status of his reply. And within 30 days he will get the reply for his queries on the email ID provided by him," an MCD official said.

However, he added, "This does not mean that we will not send a hard copy. People will get hard copies of their replies too."