RTI petitions should be accepted at all post offices

INDIAN POSTS Department offers a noble service at selected post-offices to receive RTI petitions for any public-authority on submission of RTI fees of ten rupees thus saving postal-expenses and postal-order commission for users of RTI Act.

But this service is neither popular nor available at all post-offices. Facility to receive RTI petitions for any public-authority only on payment of RTI fees of rupees ten should be made available at all post-offices throughout the country. Since every post-office, however small it may be, is attached/connected to a bigger post-office, RTI petitions thus received at smaller post-offices can be sent to big post-offices for being processed further.

In the meanwhile Indian Posts Department should issue special commission-free RTI postal-orders of rupees ten payable at all post-offices at par with payee’s name endorsed as “Accounts Officer” requiring a petitioner to write just name and address of the sender. Best is to issue RTI stamp of rupees ten to eliminate all difficulties in remitting RTI fees.

Otherwise also, Indian Posts Department should give a new modern look to postal-orders besides having a convenient sale-system. With modernised clearing-operation, it is needless to provide space for payable Post-Office. These should be payable at par at all post-offices.

Presently postal-orders are available only at select post-offices that too in restricted timings of just two hours. These should be available at all post offices during their complete working hours like postage-stamps are sold. Postal-orders should also be available for frequent users in convenient booklet-forms with ten postal-orders. Denominations for postal-orders presently are rupees 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 20, 50 and 100.

But postal-orders of rupees 1, 2 and 7 are hardly available or even of any considerable use.

Even if postal-orders of these denominations are available, they are very old and not handle-able. Considering high cost of printing and handling of postal-orders, postal-orders should be of minimum 10-rupees denomination. Instead new denominations of rupees 200 and 500 can be added.