A new security feature, a one-time password (OTP) received via email, on the Right to Information (RTI) portals is “functioning smoothly”, the Centre said on Thursday, days after several people complained that it had stalled efforts to check on their own RTI queries.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said a comprehensive review had confirmed that the portal’s newly implemented features, including an enhanced security protocol, are operational and user-friendly and that the OTP feature is “operational and effective”.

Over 9,700 users have successfully accessed the status of their RTI queries as of 10.55am on January 9, 2025, the DoPT said in a media release, responding to concerns raised by sections of RTI activists about what they had described as delays in receiving the OTPs.

Three people who routinely use RTI portals to gain access to documents and insights from government departments had told The Telegraph on Monday that the email OTP works sporadically with unusually long wait times or stalls during efforts to check on the status of RTI queries and replies, if any.

They had claimed that on the occasions that the OTP arrives within seconds, the screen appears to stall. However, they said they were able to access information without any delay or stalls on Thursday after they made fresh attempts to access the status of their queries.

The DoPT has said that while the OTPs are promptly dispatched from the National Informatics Centre (NIC) email domain, “delays may occasionally occur due to high traffic on either the NIC server or on external email services such as Gmail or Yahoo”. The NIC is the agency that connects government computers nationwide.

“The OTPs do not expire until they are used, meaning users can access the status of their applications as soon as the OTP arrives,” the DoPT also said. The new OTP feature was introduced on January 2 2025, to authenticate users and protect sensitive personal information, included in RTI applications.