TRANSPARENCY DESK UNDER

RIGHT TO INFORMATION

ACT 2005An Initiative To implement Proactive Disclosure

under Section 4

By – Dr Sandeep Mahatme

SDM Gandachera,Tripura.

BRIEF PROFILE OF SUBDIVISION Total geographical area of around 600 sq. km

and a population of 80,000 consisting mainly of Reangs, Chakmas and Tripuri tribal communities.

Its having 19 ADC Villages and 217 paras, all falling under Second Schedule of the Constitution .

It has 65 kms of International boundary with Bangladesh and had a history of insurgency with presence of NLFT insurgent group.

Peace established with border fencing,56 security camps, 3 tier PRI system and development activities.

Transparency Desk is a part of 20-20 Initiatives in subdivision.

NEEDS / PROBLEMS THAT NECESSITATE CREATION OF TRANSPARENCY DESK

A) Practical ProblemsNo.of RTI queries were filed by the citizens, social

activist, and others to various department office, regarding diverse issues like

1. Land records, development schemes,2. Compensation and relief assistance paid,3. Old office records regarding citizenship and SC

certificates 4. Election related issues like inclusion , deletion of

voters, expenditure carried out during election by SDM Office, list of Booth Level Officer’s etc

5. Issues relating to roads and drinking water schemes, different Rural Development and Panchayat department Development schemes.

Complaints of delayed or unresponsive departments, seemingly unwilling to provide the requisite information particularly with Agri and DWS department which concerns with activities implemented by them, beneficiaries selected for the schemes and corruption .

Being prone to cyclone and flood disasters, huge amounts of compensations have been given to many families at different areas of the sub-division.

Clause Section 4(2) of Right to Information itself mentions that maximum use of especially proactive disclosure clauses to be made so that citizens has to make least use of RTI applications for seeking information and making its best possible use of proactive disclosure.

In order to achieve goals of “Good Governance” the need for establishing transparency and accountability becomes much more important.

Parliament of India in last decade has been putting lot of emphasis Rights based approach to various development programmes especially flagship programmes like on Right to Employment through MGNREGA , Right to Education through SSA and RMSA , Right to Food through Food Security Bill and Public Distribution System.

Success of rights based programmes also depends on transparency ,if public authority implements Right to Information in letter and spirit.

HON’BLE SUPREME COURT IN CASE OF STATE OF UP VS RAJ NARAIN (1975) In a Government of responsibility like

ours where the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be but a few secrets. The people of this country have a right to know every public act, everything that is done in a public way by their public functionaries. They are entitled to know the particulars of every public transaction in all its bearings.”

Past experience of District Collector of Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra state who allowed public to get copies of documents and inspection of official records resulted into better professional work environment for office staff and also led to speedier disposal of public grievances. “Transparency Desk” also aims to achieve this especially professionalism amongst office staff.

It is also the outcome of peoples long standing struggle and peoples movement for bringing transparency in governance to free our nation from corruption, nepotism and favoritism

DETAILS OF THE SYSTEM PRACTICED Availability of all important information of 22

Government departments information at a single place i.e At the SDM Office in a single table i.e. Transparency Desk.

Each department’s information is kept in separate file and each file has index showing the information contained in the file.

Transparency board has been fixed outside the room depicting department wise available information in separate indexes for easy location of files and other desired information.

Information available in mixed format i.e English as well as Bengali languages. Some information is available in English and some in local languages. Also one office staff fluent in local dialect has been appointed who can easily explain the contents to the public in their native tongue.

KEY FEATURES OF TD No fee would be charged for seeking information irrespective of

APL/BPL status. Fee is applicable only for Photostat and other purposes.

New information is not created for “Transparency Desk”. Whatever existing information was there is assembled together at one place.

Appointment of Deputy Collector & Magistrate as Nodal Officer for looking into main issues related to functioning of “Transparency Desk” Especially co-ordination with other departments, timely i.e every 3 months updation of information, maintaining quality of information, addressing public grievances related to desk, training of the staff, maintenance of registers etc.

Maintenance of “Transparency Desk ” register mentioning name of visitors, nature of information required and name of department from which info required , remark of visiting personnel for taking feedback from the public.

Periodic updation of information after every 3 months by all participating departments.

SCOPE, FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS, RESOURCES OF MANPOWER, INFRASTRUCTURE.

No extra burden on administration in terms of man power, financially. Also the expenditure for providing information recurring and non-recurring through “Transparency Desk” would be very less, only in the form of expenditure for stationary. The existing staff has been given additional responsibility to look after the desk.

SOME OF THE LESSONS LEARNT DURING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM Inspite of the good pre-launching preparation and

effort, there were still some loopholes and problems which came to light after the system was launched.

It was seen that the quality of information was quite poorly selected by some of the offices, which shows that they were not wholeheartedly attempting to disclose relevant information.

Some departments submitted incomplete information which were inadequate. Supporting documents were not attached. They look like casual reports prepared for some meetings.

Inspite of several reminders, most offices delayed in the submission of their reports. After second meeting with them they were asked to give complete , accurate, quality information along with supporting documents

POSITIVE OUTCOME OF THE SYSTEM The knowledge that the department Action plan,

work progress and achievements reports are within the public domain have put fear and caution in the mind of the officers and staffs of the departments which is in Public interest.

The appointment of dedicated staffs with knowledge of local language has greatly benefited the local illiterate persons who can orally ask and get the required information easily from the staff in their own tongue. Earlier, there was no scope for illiterate citizen to get required information easily. The system provides information in black and white, as well as verbally in local dialect.

SCOPE OF REPLICATION AND SUSTAINABILTY OF “TRANSPARENCY DESK” The SDM and DM & Collector has overall control

over all departments in the sub-division , District . Also it is an important point for contact and transaction between people and govt where information relevant to them can be made available at one source, without any fee through model like “Transparency Desk”.

With simple initiative, efficient use of man power, necessary training and sensitization of staff, good co-ordination with different departments, “Transparency Desk” for proactive disclosure for Right to Information Act implementation can be started in each sub-division, district and other offices of public authorities in a cost-effective manner.

Collecting information at one place will also help to address the issues related to section 4 of RTI like total disclosure, quality of disclosure, periodic maintenance and updating of information and good quality of audit of disclosure as all these issues would be dealt by Nodal Officer.

CONCLUSION PM Of our country has repeatedly

expressed dissatisfaction on poor progress made by departments on section 4 of RTI.

Our initiative will help in increasing the faith of citizens, civil society, NGOs and social activists on public servants and will help in strenghtening democracy.

It will also help in achieving the objectives laid down by Constitution, Parliament , orders of Honble Supreme Court and demands of Social movements ,NGOs to bring greater transparency in Government.

Thank You.