10th October, 2009 marked the 4th anniversary of the passing of the Right To Information Act (2005). In commemmoration of this landmark, PAC in association with Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, CIVIC, CREAT and KRIA KATTE organised a discussion forum evaluating the implementation and impact of the Act. Srikant Patibandla from Citizen Action Support Group was in attendance and had presented the findings of PAC’s study on suo moto disclosure conducted earlier this year. The presentation can be accessed here and the full report here.

In attendance as special guests also were:

•          Hon’ble Justice Sri N. Santosh Hegde, Lokayuktha, Karnataka

•          Sri K.K. Mishra, (Retd.) IAS, State Chief Information Commissioner, Karnataka

•          Sri S. V. Ranganath, IAS, Chief Secretary, GoK

•          Sri Tapan Senapathi, IAS, Principal Secretary, DPAR (Janaspandana), GoK

Major findings from the day, include the following:

•          Only some departments like the BBMP are receiving more RTI petitions, while many other departments do not even receive one application in a month on an average.

•          Even after four years of RTI Act, the suo moto provisions are grossly violated by various departments and ministries of the government of Karnataka.

•          A need for state-level RTI cell.

•          People still find it difficult to file RTI petitions.

•          There is a need for a nodal officer to implement the RTI Act in all the departments.

•          RTI in general has exposed corruption in governance.

•          Officials still refuse to divulge information under RTI.

Media coverage of the event was widespread and articles can be found in the following links:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Not-yet-a-strong-tool/articleshow/5110761.cms

http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/11/stories/2009101159290300.htm

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/29931/only-10-per-cent-corruption.html

Report on Discussion on RTI held on 10 October 2009

Right to Information Act (RTI) was passed in 2005 after a long struggle from various sections of the society. In order to commemorate the fourth anniversary of RTI and to evaluate the implementation of RTI, a discussion was held on 10 October 2009 at Sikshaka Sadan in Bangalore on “RTI – Where do we stand?” The one day discussion was organized jointly by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi, the Citizen’s Voluntary Initiative for the City (CIVIC), the Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT), the Karnataka Right to Information Activists’ Forum (KRIA Katte), and the Public Affairs Centre (PAC). The discussion was aimed at evaluating the implementation of RTI in Karnataka.

Mr. Venkatesh Nayak from CHRI delivered the keynote address. Mr. Nayak pointed out that even though RTI helped in exposing corruption in the governance there is no follow up action to provide redressal. He added that by and large the governance remains to be secretive on many issues, warning the citizens to be more vigilant through RTI. At the same time he drew attention with regard to ‘mischievous’ filing of RTI petitions just to create burden for the officials. While stressing that it is everybody’s right to file a petition, he also called in for more responsible use of RTI.

The key note address was followed by presentations with regard to suo moto disclosure of information under RTI Act within Karnataka. The first presentation was made by Citizen Action Support Group (CASG) from PAC on suo moto declarations by various departments and ministries of Karnataka government. The study was made using websites of various departments/ministries. It is mandatory under section 4 of RTI Act to declare the provisions under suo moto within 120 days from the notification of the Act. However, major departments and ministries in Karnataka like the Department of Mass Education did not have any disclosures under suo moto. Similarly the department of Women and Child did not give complete details under suo moto. 

The second presentation was made by Mr. Anil from KRIA Katte. He spoke on the websites related to Bangalore city like BBMP, BESCOM, BWSSB, and others. He lamented that some of the departments providing basic services to the people of Bangalore are lagging behind in providing information under suo moto. On the whole the two presentation broadly opined that there is a general lethargy among the bureaucrats in disclosing information under suo moto. Since, there is no one to be held responsible for not disclosing information under suo moto, the public are forced to file more petitions under RTI. Hence, it was recommended that responsibility should be fixed to declare information under suo moto provisions at the earliest.

Justice Santosh Hegde of Lokayukta narrated his experiences of how Lokayukta has accomplished many tasks by extending its purview. Lamenting that the Lokayukta has limited powers he said that right to information is as important as right to speech. He said that Lokayukta is grossly under-staffed due to which Lokayukta is unable to take up number of cases. Mr. K.K. Mishra, the Chief Information Commissioner called in for RTI cell at the state level. He said that 7000 cases are currently pending with the commission.

Presentations with specific case studies were presented by citizens. One particular case study was presented with regard to Ward No. 50 of BBMP. In the case asphalting of Ramaiyengar road in ward no. 50, huge misappropriation of funds took place. This was exposed through RTI by the association of ward no. 50. Similarly, one activist presented the case of under utilization of funds earmarked for the welfare of SC/STs within the Bangalore city. Only through RTI this was brought out due to which the funds were utilized to a certain extent.

Another activist, Mr. Veeresh lamented that the RTI activists are being harassed by the local police stations. In this context, he also argued that the RTI activists need to be more watchful after filing the petition. There upon Mr. Venkatesh Nayak suggested instead of filing individually network and mobilize many individuals from different parts of the country to file the RTI petition. This would help in avoiding any untoward incidents.