15 November 2010, Pune: "The onus for proactive disclosure by various public authorities under RTI Act Section 4(1)(b) is an area of great confusion. We are working on framing rules for standardizations and enforcement of proactive disclosures. We have held one discussion with Central Information Commission, and will see what can be done on this front," said DoPT's Joint Secretary Rajeev Kapoor, addressing an issue that agitates leading Right to Information activists of Pune. Mr Kapoor was holding a consultation with around 30 activists, mostly from Pune and Mumbai, here yesterday at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA). Mr Prahlad Kachare, Director of Centre for Public Policy, co-chaired the meeting with Mr Kapoor.
Mr Kapoor informed RTI activists and representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) that DOPT currently had a budget of Rs 19 crore for popularizing RTI in collaboration with CSOs, including holding training seminars, organizing street plays and puppet shows, creating jingles, folk-songs, cartoon strips , and spreading awareness of RTI's success stories. Of this amount, Rs 8.5 cr was earmarked for training the government's information providers including public information officers (PIOs) and first appellate authorities (FAAs). The specific purpose of the meeting held yesterday was to gather ideas for taking care of different aspects of communication strategies, he said.
Asked why DOPT was not more hands-on with various State governments which were failing to properly implement RTI, Mr Kapoor replied, "There is great ambiguity as to who is the nodal point for communication in each state. In some states, it is the department for Administrative Reforms, in others, it is General Administration Department and so on. Also, due to the sensitivities involved, DOPT is unable to give elaborate directives to the states for framing elaborate rules."
RTI activists from Mumbai submitted a detailed representation listing what ails RTI implementation in Maharashtra, and possible remedies.
Download this representation: http://tinyurl.com/RTIissues
As a solution to many of these issues, including the frequent mismatch between what transpired at second appeal hearings and what was written in the orders, they recommended that the hearings of State Information Commissioners (SICs) should be videotaped. They also recommended that the standard templates recommended by Price Waterhouse Coopers for replies and orders of PIOs, FAAs and SICs should be speedily implemented.
See PWC's standard formats: http://tinyurl.com/PWCformats
CONTACTS:
1. List of participants with contact details: http://tinyurl.com/participants1
2. Contact details of organizers
a. Mr Rajeev Kapoor, Jt. Secretary (DoPT), rkapoor58@gmail.com, Ph (011) 23093668.
b. Mr Pralhad Kachare, Director (Centre for Public Policy), pkachare@gmail.com Ph 09422750464.
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