The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Right to Information Act needs to be overhauled’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Right to Information Act needs to be overhauled’

Staff Reporter

Participants at the workshop want to evaluate the system

— Photo: K. MURALI KUMAR

Deliberations: Members of the workshop on ’Implementation of Right to Information Act’ in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: The Right to Information Act 2005 was meant to lead us into a utopia of free information and pave the way to transparency and accountability in governance. Two years down the line, a study conducted by the Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT) proves that we are far from this happy state.

The study, the findings of which were revealed at the two-day workshop on ‘Implementation of Right to Information Act’ organised by CREAT, National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, here on Monday, pertained to districts in rural Karnataka.

The workshop brought together civil society organisations that have dealt with RTI and public information officers (PIO) to evaluate the current position and work towards making it more effective. The study may not have been conducted very scientifically, admitted Y.G. Muralidhar of CREAT, but is reflective of the general picture. B. Shivarudraswamy, Under-Secretary (RTI), Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), answered queries on behalf of the Government.

Findings

The findings of the survey, which commenced in September 2007, deal with Sections 4(1) (a) and 4 (1) (b) of the RTI Act 2005. While the former section declares that all public authorities should maintain, catalogue and index their records, the latter states that details of the PIO should be made available. Sample data was collected through NGOs in 16 districts, taluks, towns and villages across Karnataka. Out of 254 applications that were made to different public authorities only 67 responded to queries under 4 (1) (a) and 60 responded to 4 (1) (b). The study states that a lot of this information is incomplete and that most authorities do not even have their own websites.

While the Government issued circulars regarding the PIOs and Assistant PIOs and declared the appellate authorities, 111 public authorities are not aware of these notifications. Participants at the workshop complained about lack of any information about the appellate authority. Mr. Shivarudraswamy agreed that he was aware of places like Belgaum where authorities still quoted the outdated Karnataka Right to Information Act 2000 and said that the system needed to be reformed from within.

“I have several complaints pending with the Karnataka Information Commission against the DPAR, which is supposed to implement the RTI,” said J.S.D. Pani of the Right to Information Awareness Forum. “Bureaucrats are not at all bothered, the system needs to be evaluated,” he added.

While representatives of NGOs raised several issues like providing protection to applicants, PIOs talked about how people misused the Act by demanding voluminous information and harassing the officers. Mr. Shivarudraswamy agreed that there were several lacunae in the system, which can be set right by training public officers and educating the public about proper use of the RTI Act.

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