The National Informatics Centre designs all the government websites. NIC has recently revealed that it has no information about who has created the Aarogya Setu app and how it has been created.
The Chief Information Commission has issued showcause notice to various chief public information officers, Ministry of Electronic, National Informatics Centre,NeGD asking them to provide a reply to an RTI application which questioned about the Covid-19 contact tracing Aarogya Setu app. The reply can’t be evasive, the CIC has said.
The complaint was filed by one Saurav Das who claimed to have approached the NIC, National E-Governance Division (NeGD) and the ministry of electronics and information technology seeking to know about the creation of the application, that has been installed by millions of citizens during lockdown.
Installing the app is compulsory before entering restaurants, cinema halls, metro stations, as stated by the ministry of home affairs. But Das said that neither NIC nor the ministry had data regarding the creations of the app.
The CIC has also asked the National Informatics Centre to explain why its name is there on the website but it does not have any information regarding it.
“The Commission directs the CPIO, NIC to explain this matter in writing as to how the website https://aarogyasetu.gov.in/ was created with the domain name gov.in, if they do not have any information about it,” Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna has ordered.