Know your neta through netapedia

NAKSHAB KHAN

Working on the lines of  online encyclopedia-wikipedia, a group of current and formers students of IIT-Mumbai have devised a database called “Netapedia” to provide information about Indian politicians and increase awareness about important national issues by ensuring participation from citizens.

The Netapedia claims to provide authentic profiles of Indian politicians based on the affidavits filed by them.

The website,  netapedia.in, contains information about politicians’ education, legal history, votes cast in their favour, assets, both moveable and immoveable, work record in their constituencies.

Speaking to The Sunday Indian, former IITian and founder of the website, Siddarth Mishra, said that the basic purpose of developing this site was to bridge the gap between electorate and the political leaders.

“Usually, voters don't know much about political leaders they are going to elect. Though there are several sources that transmit information about the politicians but there was no comprehensive platform. So we tried to focused on a single online tool which provides all information about Parliamentarians, Members of Legislative Assemblies and election candidates,” said, Siddarth Mishra.

The site also provides information about the MPLADS (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) summary for each of the MPs from 35 states and Union Territories.

Popular politicians who are most views on the site include Sonia Gandhi, Kapil Sibal, Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Priya Sunil Dutt, Asaduddin Owaisi and Kamal Nath.

According to Siddarth , the founding members of the site include three former and five current IITians and they plan to give it a thorough professional look.

Siddarth added that it’s an unregistered entity right now, but they will get it registered as a non-profiting non government organisation (NGO).

“We plan to give it a thorough professional look. It’s an unregistered entity right now, but we’ll get it registered as a non-profiting NGO,” he said.

The project was launched in October last year.

On being asked whether such an entity, displaying information about politicians online, can have any legal repercussions, Siddarth  said, “We are only showcasing what is already in public domain and falls under the right to information of common people. We have gathered information about these politicians through RTI and sources like the Parliament and Secretariats.”

The other interesting feature of the site is that it provides electoral facts like “ever heard of 1033 candidates for a single seat? Believe it or not, it did happened for the Modaurichi assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu in 1996. The ballot paper was in the form of a booklet!”

The site further plans to add new features about politicians and the team hopes to rope in volunteers and readers to help with the research and give a new shape to the venture.

The site is gradually gaining popularity and gets over a hundred hits a day.