NEW DELHI: Delhi tops the six metro cities in complying with the `Duty to Publish' (DTP) clause of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

By putting 65 per cent of the information required in the public domain, the national capital is way ahead of the other metropolises with Chennai coming a distant second, followed closely by Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Kolkata was "consistently" found to be the least transparent local government, disclosing an average of seven per cent of the information required.

These details were released by the Centre for Civil Society (CCS) here on Thursday after preparing a report card on `RTI Compliance of Six Metros.' Primarily, the CCS prepared a DTP Index — based on Section 4 of the Act — to assess compliance of government departments in these six metros in five public services: local government, public health, sanitation, bus transport and water supply.

Jal Board tops the list

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) topped the list of 33 agencies surveyed.

While DJB made available 89 per cent of the information required, MCD put 76 per cent of the information required in the public domain.

In Delhi's case, its performance was dragged down by the Delhi Transport Corporation, which published only 19 per cent of the information required.

Report card

The Bangalore and Chennai Municipal Corporations publish 62 per cent of required information while Kolkata's municipality, water supply and health departments "share the bottom spot fulfilling only five per cent of their DTP."

A similar report card prepared on RTI compliance of States concluded that "Indian public authorities fail the RTI exam."

Test case

Using the education ministries of all States as a test case, the CCS study found the average DTP Index score to be 29 per cent.

Only 12 States and Union Territories have released over 35 per cent of the information required and Rajasthan — home of the RTI movement — was among the States at the bottom with a score of 11 per cent.

Other prominent "failures" were West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, putting up only five per cent of the information required.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail