Imagine using your mobile phone to trace the status of your RTI application. That is not feasible right now, but by next year, when you get your unique identity number, you can. With a UID, you can also file RTI applications online from across the country.

These are, according to UID Authority chairman Nandan Nilekani some of the possibilities once every Indian have a UID number. "It is time the government evolved a system where the citizens could track the status of their RTI applications through the UID number. These should go hand in hand," said Nilekani, while speaking on ‘RTI and UID project- possibilities’ at the fifth annual RTI convention in Delhi on Tuesday.

“I visualise a scenario where people can file RTI application through laptops, mobile phones using Internet,” he said.

RTI promotes accountability and it is best to put these systems upfront. The sooner we do it the better,” he added.
Talking about section 4 of the RTI Act under which the public authorities are supposed to suo motu disclose information, Nilekani said that while designing new applications or software to implement various welfare schemes, the government should put every effort to make that application transparent in nature. “All the features of a scheme should be made public at all the stages…and it should happen at the design stage.”

Nilekani said that if the government would voluntarily disclose information, it would reduce the number of RTI applications which in turn would reduce the pendency before the information commissions.

Every detail about the planning and execution of the UID project, according to Nilakani, is available in public domain. “In UIDAI, we want to show what a transparent system is. Who will do the enrollment, how will it be done, how will the UID help the citizens…all this is available on the website of the UIDAI,” he said.