Diskette/Floppy are passé - cultivate culture of email attachments & pen drives

By Vijay Kumar

A netizen writes -

Rule 4 of the Right to Information Rules, 2012 as appearing on the http://www.righttoinformation.gov.in/is extracted below -

4. Fees for providing information - Fee for providing information under sub-section (4) of Section 4 and sub-sections (I) and (5) of Section 7 of the Act shall be charged at the following rates, namely:-

(a) rupees two for each page in A-3 or smaller size paper;

(b) actual cost or price of a photocopy in large size paper;

(c) actual cost or price for samples or models;

(d) rupees fifty per diskette or floppy;

(e) price fixed for a publication or rupees two per page of photocopy for extracts from the publication;

(f) no fee for inspection of records for the first hour of inspection and a fee of rupees 5 for each subsequent hour or fraction thereof; and

(g) so much of postal charge involved in supply of information that exceeds fifty rupees.

Some suggestions I would like to make in this regard -

+ When the government is emphasising on going digital, the use of post should be avoided as far as possible and correspondence should be entered via email only. Also, the collated information should be sent as pdf attachments rather than taking photocopies and charging the applicant for the same. Digitisation would also help the department in safe-keeping of records in the days to come.

+ Usage of 'diskette' or 'floppy' are passe - in fact, they may not be available today and, therefore, pen-drive culture ought to be put into practice.