Jammu, Sep 02: The Jammu and Kashmir Online Right to Information (RTI) Portal has received 65,243 applications and 9,033 first appeals in the 19 months since its launch, indicating substantial public uptake of the digital mechanism for accessing information from government authorities.
The figures have been disclosed by the Jammu and Kashmir General Administration Department (GAD) in response to an RTI application filed by Jammu-based RTI activist Raman Kumar Sharma. The department issued its reply on August 27, 2026.
As per the official response, the J&K RTI Online Portal was formally made available to citizens on January 10, 2025. Between its launch and August 26, 2026, the portal received 65,243 RTI applications, while 9,033 first appeals were filed during the same period. The appeals constitute approximately 13.8 per cent of the total applications received through the platform.
Sharma had filed the RTI application on July 27, seeking detailed information on the functioning and expansion of the portal, including its date of launch, the number of RTI applications and first appeals received, the public authorities currently available on the platform, and the procedure and policy governing the onboarding of additional public authorities, Public Information Officers (PIOs) and First Appellate Authorities (FAAs).
While responding to the queries, the GAD stated that the onboarding of public authorities, PIOs and FAAs was being undertaken in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005. However, the department did not provide a detailed account of the specific procedure or policy followed for adding new authorities and officials to the portal.
For information regarding the number of public authorities onboarded at the time of the portal’s launch and those added subsequently, the GAD transferred the relevant queries to the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Jammu and Kashmir, under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act.
The data assumes significance as the number of applications filed through the portal indicates a considerable reliance by citizens on the online mechanism within a relatively short period of its operationalisation. The volume of first appeals also points to continued recourse to the statutory appellate mechanism under the RTI framework.
However, Sharma has raised concerns over the limited presence of district- and grassroots-level offices on the portal, arguing that the effectiveness of an online RTI mechanism ultimately depends on the breadth of public authorities accessible through it.
