Archive for the 'Right to Information' Category

Web volunteering – proactive information disclosure by government

Dear Friends,

The Right to Information Act of 2005 mandates the disclosure of certain kinds of information by all government agencies. We have an opportunity to review government websites and make suggestions about the information gaps on government websites.

Central Information Commissioner Mr. Shailesh Gandhi has agreed to consider these suggestions for recommendation with the respective Public authorities for implementation.

If you would like to volunteer in the effort to increase the information disclosure by government agencies, kindly let us know by emailing veena.madhukar@gmail.com. Please feel free to share it with your friends as well.

Regards, Veena

Guidelines to draft an RTI application

Interesting note here to those who are looking to draft an RTI application.

Report on working of CIC Office

An interesting report on working of CIC’s (Mr Shailesh Gandhi) office. Just other than outlining some of the process innovations around RTI, the report struck me as an account of variability in productivity in government offices – there is no reason to believe that such variability doesn’t exist in other departments/offices, and that the efficiency levels can not be increased by similar levels.

Right to Information – Usage study

RaaG excerpt in Indian ExpressIndian Express published an interesting excerpt on the usage of Right to Information. The base study has been done by RTI Assessment & Analysis Group, and their website has much more detailed information. The presentation below captures some of it.

In my view, the relevance of this act will multiply several folds as more and more people know about it, and citizens start using this rather than just NGOs and activists. Also, from the presentation, it seems clear that the OD challenges earlier referred to on nextindia.org for other governmental functions are equally relevant here – from PIOs not knowing about it, to not wanting to answer, to not having the requisite training. An integral part of this might be the incentive (or penalty) system that one can implement. It seems that the current penalty system in place lacks enforcement, partially due to the realization that the enablers for PIOs are not in place yet.

RTI amendment

Hello all,
CHRI, one of the key players in the RTI movement has circulated a note on the proposed amendment to the RTI Act. There is widespread apprehension that the government will try to restrict the scope of the RTI law. One key issue is that of the status of the ‘file notings’. This group might be interested in discussing this impending issue.
There were three attachments to this CHRI letter, which I have not included here. Pls contact CHRI for more information.
thanks,
Barun
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