Right to Information (RTI) Act

Why in the News?

Recently, Hundreds of RTI applications and their responses from Union public authorities have been missing from the RTIOnline website.

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005:

1. The law empowers Indian citizens to seek information from a Public Authority.
2. Thus, it makes the Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible for their actions.
3. The RTI Act has adequate “teeth” to bring in transparency and reduce corruption.
4. Section 4 of the RTI Act requires suo motu disclosure of information by each public authority.
5. Section 8 (1) mentions exemptions against furnishing information under RTI Act.
6. Section 8 (2) provides for disclosure of information exempted under Official Secrets Act, 1923 if larger public interest is served.

Key issues in implementation of RTI Act:

1. Inadequate planning at Public Authority level to proactively identify and address the constraints and ensure that citizens are provided the requested information.
2. Inadequate processes, infrastructure or resources with the Information Commission to measure the extent of implementation of the Act.
3. The role/ownership of State Information Commissioners (SIC) and State Nodal Department in implementation of the Act has been varying in spite of clearly laid out roles in the act.
4. Low success in providing information within the stipulated time.
5. Awareness about exercising the rights by the public and disadvantaged communities about RTI has been low, in spite of the act stating that it is the responsibility of the “appropriate” Government to create awareness.
   1. Only 13% of the rural population and 33% in urban population were aware of RTI Act
   2. Only 12% of the women and 26% of men were aware of RTI Act
6. Wide gap in ensuring convenience to the citizens in filing requests for information, where the citizen was discouraged to file for information requests.
7. Record Management
   1. More than 38% of PIOs stated ineffective record management system for delay in processing
   2. Approximately 43% of the PIOs were not aware of the record management guidelines.

Way forward:

1. Establishment of a RTI Implementation Cell at the State/Central level and to be headed by a senior bureaucrat to monitor the reports/status on various issues related to RTI based on inputs from SIC/CICs and the Public Authorities.
2. capacity-building within the Public Authority to provide information within the stipulated time to the citizens.
3. Government of India (GoI) should establish RTI as a “brand” through a mass awareness campaign by taking into account the linguistic and local relevance.
   1. Increase public knowledge and awareness
   2. Encourage citizen involvement and debate
   3. Increase transparency within the Government
4. Re-organisation of record management system to promote information management.