THE government should create RTI (Right To Information) implementation cells headed by senior bureaucrats at the Centre and the states to monitor the status on various issues related to RTI based on inputs from state information commissions or Central information commission and the public authorities, a report by an international consultancy firm said.
The report, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) exclusively for department of personnel and training (DoPT), is based on feedback of over 2000 information seekers and over 200 information providers across public authority (PA) at Centre, state, and local levels in five states, in addition feedback of 5000 citizens with respect to their awareness of the RTI Act.
The report further said that there was a need for capacity-building within the public authority and the administrative head may constitute or appoint public authority’s RTI Cell, or PARTI Cell, to proactively address issues pertaining to RTI implementation and develop a roadmap for implementation.
For the starters, the Right to Information Act came into force on 12 October 2005 which empowers Indian citizens to seek information from a public authority, thus making the government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible.
THE government has said that file noting by civil servants can be disclosed with an exception of a few items which are still exempted under section 8 of the RTI Act. The clarification came after a major showdown between the personnel ministry and Central Information Commission (CIC) for quite sometime.
Various government ministries and departments sought clarification from the personnel ministry after CIC chief Wajahat Habibullah summoned two officers --- joint secretary S K Sarkar and deputy secretary Anuradha Chagti --- to explain why they should not be prosecuted under RTI provisions as the department of personnel and training (DoPT) refused to correct the information in its website that file noting was not part of information that could be disclosed under the RTI.
According to media reports published earlier, CIC even claimed that erring officials could even face jail terms. In fact, CIC is one of the organizations that come under DoPT.
THE government officials need to be much more careful in file notings as those are already in public scrutiny under the RTI. Central Information Commission chief Wajahat Habibullah’s summoning of DoPT joint secretary S K Sarkar and deputy secretary Anuradha Chagti on June 17 to explain why they should not be prosecuted under RTI provisions, is a case in point.
According to reports in a leading newspaper, the erring officials could also face a year in jail.
In fact, DoPT refused to correct the information in its website that file notings were not part of information that could be disclosed under the RTI. The Supreme Court has already accepted the CIC’s ruling that file notings were not exempt from disclosure, said the media reports.
If CIC becomes aggressive, as this case has demonstrated, the loopholes of the RTI may soon be plugged, leading to the disclosure of many facts which officers would not have like to be on public domain.
Govt’s Second Innings Bonanza: Take casual leave during LTC, encash 10 days of earn leaves Here’s a good piece of news for all government employees including the officers. Government servants will now be allowed to encash earned leave upto 10 days at the time of availing Leave Travel Concession (LTC) even if they don’t take leaves for a similar number of days, a DoPT circular dated June 3, 2009, clarified. That means even if an employee takes just four days off to avail of the LTC, that too casual leaves, he may claim encashment of 10 days of leaves. Earlier, the encashment was possible subject to the condition that earned leave of at least an equivalent duration is also availed of by the Government servants simultaneously. The DoPT received a number of references from various ministries to waive this condition citing practical problems faced by them as the facility of LTC was also admissible while availing Casual Leave, the circular further said. “The matter has been examined in this Department in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and it has now been decided to permit Government servants encashment of earned leave upto 10 days at the time of availing LTC without any linkage to the number of days and the nature of leave availed while proceeding on LTC,” the clarification said.